California Public Employees Retirement System Cuts Stock Position in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

California Public Employees Retirement System lessened its stake in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,612,709 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 44,985 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Copart were worth $79,023,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of CPRT. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Copart by 100.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,512,662 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,201,821,000 after acquiring an additional 48,891,984 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised 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 raised 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. raised 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 holdings in Copart by 93.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,733,860 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $634,882,000 after purchasing an additional 7,122,991 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on CPRT shares. StockNews.com lowered Copart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Copart from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Copart has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.00.

Copart Stock Up 1.1 %

CPRT opened at $54.93 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $52.82 billion, a P/E 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.31.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted 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 company had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 21.55%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.31 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Copart, Inc. will post 1.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Copart news, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chairman now directly owns 19,687,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,137,374,604.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Copart news, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 285,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now directly owns 35,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,934,450. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chairman now directly owns 19,687,980 shares in the company, valued at $1,137,374,604.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 985,000 shares of company stock valued at $55,519,950. Insiders own 10.23% of the company’s stock.

Copart Company 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.