Sigma Planning Corp Acquires 3,203 Shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Sigma Planning Corp raised its holdings in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 28.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,654 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,203 shares during the quarter. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in Copart were worth $718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Copart Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CPRT opened at $54.93 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $52.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.52 and a beta of 1.22. Copart, Inc. has a 52 week low of $38.35 and a 52 week high of $58.58. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $54.62 and a 200 day moving average of $50.31.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. Copart had a return on equity of 21.55% and a net margin of 33.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Copart, Inc. will post 1.42 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.77, for a total transaction of $34,662,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 19,687,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,137,374,604.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.77, for a total transaction of $34,662,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 19,687,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,137,374,604.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 285,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.27, for a total value of $15,751,950.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 35,000 shares in the company, valued at $1,934,450. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 985,000 shares of company stock valued at $55,519,950 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 10.23% of the company’s stock.

Copart 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.