Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich Buys 77,220 Shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich lifted its stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 53.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 220,944 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 77,220 shares during the quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich’s holdings in Copart were worth $10,826,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Copart by 100.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,512,662 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,201,821,000 after purchasing an additional 48,891,984 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Copart by 96.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,803,057 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,715,114,000 after buying an additional 19,576,719 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Copart by 84.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,929,180 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $772,568,000 after buying an additional 8,205,757 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Copart by 79.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 17,359,152 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $748,006,000 after buying an additional 7,666,881 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Copart by 93.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,733,860 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $634,882,000 after purchasing an additional 7,122,991 shares during the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Copart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Copart from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.00.

Copart Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CPRT traded up $0.51 during trading on Friday, reaching $55.73. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,553,709 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,573,211. Copart, Inc. has a 12 month low of $38.53 and a 12 month high of $58.58. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.58 billion, a PE ratio of 40.09 and a beta of 1.22.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Copart had a return on equity of 21.55% and a net margin of 33.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.31 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Copart, Inc. will post 1.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Copart

In related news, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.77, for a total transaction of $34,662,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 19,687,980 shares in the company, valued at $1,137,374,604.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Copart news, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 285,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.27, for a total value of $15,751,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 35,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,934,450. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.77, for a total transaction of $34,662,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 19,687,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,137,374,604.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 985,000 shares of company stock worth $55,519,950 over the last three months. Company insiders own 10.23% of the company’s stock.

About Copart

Copart, Inc provides online auctions and vehicle remarketing services. It offers a range of services for processing and selling vehicles over the Internet through its Virtual Bidding Third Generation Internet auction-style sales technology on behalf of vehicle sellers, insurance companies, banks and finance companies, charities, and fleet operators and dealers, as well as individual owners.