Sentry Investment Management LLC Reduces Stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Sentry Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,561 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 490 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Copart were worth $223,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Veritable L.P. grew its holdings in Copart by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Veritable L.P. now owns 15,198 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,143,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 189 shares during the period. Hollencrest Capital Management grew its holdings in shares of Copart by 92.1% during the 1st quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 438 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its holdings in shares of Copart by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 5,640 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $600,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the period. Finally, Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Copart by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 9,286 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $698,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the period. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.77, for a total value of $34,662,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 19,687,980 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,137,374,604.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Director Matt Blunt sold 100,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.06, for a total value of $5,106,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 19,687,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,137,374,604.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 985,000 shares of company stock valued at $55,519,950. Corporate insiders own 10.23% of the company’s stock.

Copart Trading Down 0.7 %

CPRT opened at $54.38 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $54.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.93. Copart, Inc. has a 12-month low of $38.35 and a 12-month high of $58.58. The firm has a market cap of $52.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.12 and a beta of 1.22.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com cut Copart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Copart from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Copart currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.00.

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.