Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Copart, Inc. $CPRT

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,918 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,147 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Copart were worth $732,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Copart in the first quarter worth approximately $267,723,000. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its stake in Copart by 195.6% in the first quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 3,992,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $225,942,000 after buying an additional 2,642,100 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Copart by 56.4% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,407,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $314,415,000 after buying an additional 2,310,067 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in Copart by 32.5% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 9,380,026 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $531,256,000 after buying an additional 2,299,192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Copart by 2.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,263,922 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,900,295,000 after buying an additional 2,134,890 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Copart Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CPRT opened at $44.77 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $43.33 billion, a PE ratio of 27.98 and a beta of 1.03. Copart, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $43.71 and a fifty-two week high of $64.38. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $46.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $51.11.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Stephens cut their target price on Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 5th. HSBC set a $62.00 target price on Copart and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Copart from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Copart in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Copart from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Copart currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.50.

Insider Activity at Copart

In related news, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 9.68% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.