Norges Bank Buys Shares of 11,885,162 Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 11,885,162 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $682,089,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Copart during the 4th quarter worth $253,686,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Copart by 23.3% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 3,667,534 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Copart by 335.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,705,354 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $149,471,000 after buying an additional 2,084,626 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Copart during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $69,162,000. Finally, Amundi lifted its holdings in Copart by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 7,080,834 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $402,332,000 after buying an additional 1,090,841 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Daniel J. Englander sold 235,480 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.84, for a total transaction of $13,384,683.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Matt Blunt sold 50,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.66, for a total transaction of $2,883,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 385,480 shares of company stock worth $21,667,683 in the last three months. 9.68% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Copart Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CPRT opened at $55.64 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $53.75 billion, a PE ratio of 37.34 and a beta of 1.30. Copart, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $48.05 and a fifty-two week high of $64.38. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.10.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted 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 company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. Copart had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 32.27%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Argus lowered Copart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research 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.