Employees Retirement System of Texas Invests $5.68 Million in Copart, Inc. $CPRT

Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 115,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,682,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Copart by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 106,408,868 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,221,483,000 after acquiring an additional 2,144,946 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Copart by 3.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,462,076 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $999,305,000 after purchasing an additional 656,333 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Copart by 15.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 15,345,768 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $868,417,000 after purchasing an additional 2,106,656 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Copart by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,490,237 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $537,052,000 after purchasing an additional 658,329 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi raised its position in Copart by 32.5% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 9,380,026 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $531,256,000 after purchasing an additional 2,299,192 shares during the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,283 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total value of $1,087,635.57. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 31,332 shares in the company, valued at $1,403,360.28. The trade was a 43.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 228,840 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.54, for a total transaction of $10,879,053.60. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 353,123 shares of company stock valued at $15,873,689. 9.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CPRT. Stephens reduced their target price on Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Copart from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 21st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Copart in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Copart from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Copart from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.60.

Copart Price Performance

NASDAQ:CPRT opened at $38.75 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.22 and a beta of 1.06. Copart, Inc. has a one year low of $38.67 and a one year high of $64.38. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.40.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The business services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.02. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 18.17%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.18 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.37 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Copart Company Profile

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.