Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) Cut to Hold at Argus

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) was downgraded by investment analysts at Argus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports.

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Copart from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th.

Copart Stock Down 1.4 %

Copart stock opened at $52.30 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $56.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.10 and a beta of 1.30. Copart has a 52-week low of $48.05 and a 52-week high of $64.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. Copart had a net margin of 32.27% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.13 billion. Research analysts expect that Copart will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Diane M. Morefield sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.01, for a total value of $1,740,300.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,160,200. The trade was a 60.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Daniel J. Englander sold 235,480 shares of Copart stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.84, for a total transaction of $13,384,683.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 315,480 shares of company stock worth $18,007,983. 9.68% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Copart

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CPRT. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Copart by 2.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 38,876,517 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,037,130,000 after purchasing an additional 941,858 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Copart in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new position in Copart during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $212,000. Haverford Trust Co grew its holdings in Copart by 5.1% during the third quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 12,694 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $665,000 after purchasing an additional 613 shares during the period. Finally, MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in Copart in the third quarter valued at approximately $304,000. Institutional investors own 85.78% 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.