Conning Inc. Cuts Holdings in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Conning Inc. reduced its position in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 8.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,942 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 380 shares during the period. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Copart were worth $226,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Optimum Investment Advisors grew its stake in shares of Copart by 141.5% in the 3rd quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 512 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank bought a new position in shares of Copart in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Copart in the third quarter worth about $29,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Copart during the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC raised its position in Copart by 1,737.1% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 643 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 608 shares during the period. 85.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Copart from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 83,310 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.86, for a total value of $5,153,556.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,850 shares in the company, valued at approximately $485,601. This represents a 91.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 251,423 shares of Copart stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total transaction of $16,038,273.17. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 14,436,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $920,907,971.03. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 650,213 shares of company stock valued at $39,199,813. Insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

Copart Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of CPRT opened at $58.21 on Monday. Copart, Inc. has a twelve month low of $48.05 and a twelve month high of $64.38. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.17. The company has a market cap of $56.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.99 and a beta of 1.33.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The business services provider reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. Copart had a net margin of 31.92% and a return on equity of 18.96%. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 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.