Simmons Bank Takes $222,000 Position in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Simmons Bank bought a new stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,528 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Copart by 100.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,512,662 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,201,821,000 after acquiring an additional 48,891,984 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Copart by 96.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,803,057 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,715,114,000 after purchasing an additional 19,576,719 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Copart by 84.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,929,180 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $772,568,000 after buying an additional 8,205,757 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Copart by 79.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 17,359,152 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $748,006,000 after buying an additional 7,666,881 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake in Copart by 93.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,733,860 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $634,882,000 after buying an additional 7,122,991 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Copart news, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 28th. The shares were 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 285,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.27, for a total value of $15,751,950.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 35,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,934,450. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $1,137,374,604.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 985,000 shares of company stock worth $55,519,950 in the last quarter. 10.23% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Copart Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Copart stock traded down $0.58 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $55.35. The stock had a trading volume of 1,630,361 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,474,985. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $55.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.95. Copart, Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.57 and a 1 year high of $58.58. The company has a market capitalization of $53.22 billion, a PE ratio of 40.24 and a beta of 1.22.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.