Do Hedge Funds and Insiders Love Copart, Inc. (CPRT)?

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund interest of late.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are dozens of metrics shareholders can use to track stocks. Some of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can outpace the market by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as key, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action surrounding Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT).

What have hedge funds been doing with Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)?

Heading into Q2, a total of 37 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 61% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably.

Of the funds we track, JANA Partners, managed by Barry Rosenstein, holds the most valuable position in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT). JANA Partners has a $218.2 million position in the stock, comprising 4.5% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which held a $121.5 million position; 0.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that are bullish include Ricky Sandler’s Eminence Capital, Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC and Rob Butts and Josh Clark’s Southpoint Capital Advisors.

Consequently, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. First Pacific Advisors LLC, managed by Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick, initiated the largest position in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT). First Pacific Advisors LLC had 52.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Rob Butts and Josh Clark’s Southpoint Capital Advisors also made a $42.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are James Crichton and Adam Weiss’s Scout Capital Management, Thomas Steyer’s Farallon Capital, and SAC Subsidiary’s Sigma Capital Management.

How are insiders trading Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time period, Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 11 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT). These stocks are Sonic Automotive Inc (NYSE:SAH), CarMax, Inc (NYSE:KMX), KAR Auction Services Inc (NYSE:KAR), Penske Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE:PAG), and AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE:AN). All of these stocks are in the auto dealerships industry and their market caps match CPRT’s market cap.

With the results shown by our studies, everyday investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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