Copart, Inc. $CPRT Shares Bought by Maryland State Retirement & Pension System

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its position in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 42,980 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,203 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Copart were worth $2,109,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CPRT. Cloud Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Copart in the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Atticus Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Copart in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Copart in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Accent Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Copart in the first quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Financial Network Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Copart by 152.6% during the first quarter. Financial Network Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 783 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 473 shares during the period. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. HSBC set a $62.00 price objective on shares of Copart and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Copart from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Stephens lowered their price objective on shares of Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Copart in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Copart from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Copart currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Copart news, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,088 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.43, for a total value of $1,118,405.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 31,527 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,463,798.61. This represents a 43.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 228,840 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 can be found here. Insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

Copart Price Performance

NASDAQ CPRT opened at $43.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $42.46 billion, a PE ratio of 27.43 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a fifty day moving average of $46.80 and a 200 day moving average of $51.29. Copart, Inc. has a 1 year low of $43.71 and a 1 year high of $64.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 18.17%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

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.