First Merchants Corp Has $5.01 Million Stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

First Merchants Corp lifted its stake in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 102,301 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,475 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Copart were worth $5,013,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Copart by 100.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,512,662 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,201,821,000 after acquiring an additional 48,891,984 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Copart by 96.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,803,057 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,715,114,000 after purchasing an additional 19,576,719 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Copart by 84.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,929,180 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $772,568,000 after purchasing an additional 8,205,757 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Copart by 79.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 17,359,152 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $748,006,000 after purchasing an additional 7,666,881 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Copart by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,582,550 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,512,494,000 after purchasing an additional 513,244 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CPRT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Copart in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $48.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered Copart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Copart presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.77, for a total transaction of $34,662,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 19,687,980 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,137,374,604.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 285,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.27, for a total value of $15,751,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 35,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,934,450. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.77, for a total value of $34,662,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 19,687,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,137,374,604.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 985,000 shares of company stock worth $55,519,950. 10.23% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Copart Stock Up 1.5 %

CPRT traded up $0.81 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $56.55. The stock had a trading volume of 3,376,080 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,893,884. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $53.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.28. Copart, Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.78 and a 1 year high of $58.58. The stock has a market cap of $54.37 billion, a PE ratio of 40.68 and a beta of 1.22.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 21.55%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Copart, Inc. will post 1.42 EPS for the current year.

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.