First Trust Advisors LP Boosts Position in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT – Get Rating) by 73.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 332,852 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 140,737 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Copart were worth $20,268,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Heritage Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Copart by 4.4% during the third quarter. Heritage Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,855 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $410,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Copart by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,167 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $337,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Copart by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 7,444 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $792,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in shares of Copart by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 71,048 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,560,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Utah Retirement Systems boosted its stake in shares of Copart by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 38,144 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,058,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CPRT. Northcoast Research cut shares of Copart from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, May 1st. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Copart in a report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $78.00 target price on shares of Copart in a report on Tuesday, February 21st. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Copart from $78.00 to $90.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of Copart from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.33.

Insider Transactions at Copart

In other news, Director Matt Blunt sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.36, for a total transaction of $2,080,800.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 11.19% of the company’s stock.

Copart Stock Performance

CPRT opened at $88.24 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day moving average of $76.39 and a 200 day moving average of $68.81. Copart, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $51.10 and a fifty-two week high of $89.31.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 17th. The business services provider reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. Copart had a net margin of 30.72% and a return on equity of 22.80%. Copart’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.58 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Copart, Inc. will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Copart Profile

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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.