Howard Capital Management Inc. Buys 848 Shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Howard Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,580 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 848 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Copart were worth $1,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CPRT. Jensen Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Copart by 2,466.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,536,233 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $185,299,000 after purchasing an additional 3,398,423 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Copart by 335.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,705,354 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $149,471,000 after acquiring an additional 2,084,626 shares during the period. Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. grew its position in shares of Copart by 706.6% in the 3rd quarter. Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. now owns 1,586,886 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $83,153,000 after acquiring an additional 1,390,146 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Copart by 192.4% in the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,585,400 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $90,986,000 after acquiring an additional 1,043,200 shares during the period. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its position in shares of Copart by 1,103.1% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,062,931 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $55,698,000 after acquiring an additional 974,585 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Copart Price Performance

CPRT stock opened at $56.61 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $57.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.73. Copart, Inc. has a one year low of $48.05 and a one year high of $64.38. The stock has a market cap of $54.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.00 and a beta of 1.33.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Diane M. Morefield sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,160,200. The trade was a 60.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 251,423 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total transaction of $16,038,273.17. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 14,436,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $920,907,971.03. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 650,213 shares of company stock worth $39,199,813 over the last three months. Insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

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.