Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Buys 22,928 Shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,450,970 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,928 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Copart were worth $83,271,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Copart during the fourth quarter worth approximately $253,686,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Copart by 23.3% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 19,440,046 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,115,664,000 after buying an additional 3,667,534 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Copart by 335.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,705,354 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $149,471,000 after buying an additional 2,084,626 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Copart in the fourth quarter valued at about $69,162,000. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in shares of Copart by 18.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 7,080,834 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $402,332,000 after acquiring an additional 1,090,841 shares in the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Copart Stock Performance

CPRT opened at $53.88 on Thursday. Copart, Inc. has a 52-week low of $48.05 and a 52-week high of $64.38. The firm has a market cap of $52.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.16 and a beta of 1.30. The business’s fifty day moving average is $56.53 and its 200-day moving average is $56.00.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. Copart had a net margin of 32.27% and a return on equity of 19.31%. On average, research analysts predict that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Matt Blunt sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.66, for a total transaction of $2,883,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Daniel J. Englander sold 235,480 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.84, for a total value of $13,384,683.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 315,480 shares of company stock worth $18,007,983. Corporate insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Argus downgraded shares of Copart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th.

About Copart

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.