Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Short Interest Up 15.2% in August

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in 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 trading volume of 4,600,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CPRT. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Copart in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. lifted its position in shares of Copart by 79.6% during the 1st quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 528 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Copart by 98.6% during the 2nd quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Copart by 283.3% in the 2nd quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 575 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in Copart by 477.7% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 595 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 492 shares during the period. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Copart Stock Up 1.9 %

CPRT stock traded up $0.97 during midday 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 stock has a market cap of $48.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.72 and a beta of 1.27. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $51.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.78. Copart has a 1 year low of $42.41 and a 1 year high of $58.58.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.33 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.07 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.34 earnings per share. Copart’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Copart will post 1.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.