Mizuho Bank Ltd. Makes New Investment in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Mizuho Bank Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,430 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $82,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CPRT. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Copart by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 38,876,517 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,037,130,000 after buying an additional 941,858 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of Copart by 12.9% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 39,340 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,061,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in Copart during the third quarter valued at approximately $761,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its holdings in Copart by 3,878.0% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 38,069 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,995,000 after purchasing an additional 37,112 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC grew its position in Copart by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 231,377 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $12,109,000 after purchasing an additional 20,333 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director James E. Meeks sold 100,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.00, for a total transaction of $5,400,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Daniel J. Englander sold 235,480 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.84, for a total value of $13,384,683.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

Copart Trading Down 3.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ CPRT opened at $54.51 on Friday. Copart, Inc. has a 12-month low of $48.05 and a 12-month high of $64.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.58 and a beta of 1.22. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $56.23 and a 200 day moving average of $56.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. Copart had a net margin of 32.27% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Argus downgraded Copart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th.

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.