Short Interest in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Grows By 15.2%

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,530,000 shares, an increase of 15.2% from the August 15th total of 10,010,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,600,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Institutional Trading of Copart

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Copart by 16.7% during the second quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,808 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $98,000 after acquiring an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Cim LLC lifted its position in Copart by 47.3% in the 2nd quarter. Cim LLC now owns 326,457 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $16,163,000 after acquiring an additional 104,892 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Copart during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,427,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new stake in Copart during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,815,000. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Copart by 3.2% in the second quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,736 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $581,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Copart Stock Up 1.9 %

CPRT traded up $0.97 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $50.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,207,229 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,489,523. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.72 and a beta of 1.27. Copart has a twelve month low of $42.41 and a twelve month high of $58.58. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $51.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.78.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last released its earnings results 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 net margin of 32.17% and a return on equity of 19.55%. The company had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Copart will post 1.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective 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.