Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Short Interest Update

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 11,750,000 shares, a growth of 6.1% from the September 15th total of 11,070,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 4,540,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Copart

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CPRT. Syon Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Copart during the 4th quarter valued at about $228,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Copart by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,788 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $431,000 after purchasing an additional 872 shares during the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont bought a new position in Copart during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in Copart during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $495,000. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its position in Copart by 148.0% during the 4th quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 17,612 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $863,000 after purchasing an additional 10,511 shares during the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Copart Trading Down 1.6 %

CPRT opened at $53.69 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $52.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.34. Copart has a 12-month low of $42.41 and a 12-month high of $58.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $51.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.81 and a beta of 1.27.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.03). Copart had a return on equity of 19.55% and a net margin of 32.17%. The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.34 earnings per share. Copart’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Copart will post 1.54 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Copart from $58.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th.

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.