CPRT

Business profile & competitive position

Copart, Inc. (CPRT) sits in the Industrials sector under the Specialty Business Services industry, but its actual business is online vehicle auctions and vehicle remarketing. The company runs its marketplace over the internet through the Virtual Bidding Third Generation platform, or VB3. For the majority of sales, Copart acts as an agent: insurance companies supplied 81% of the vehicles processed in fiscal 2025, and the auction connects those sellers to a base of roughly 1 million registered members that includes licensed dismantlers, rebuilders, repair licensees, used-vehicle dealers, exporters, and the general public. In the U.K., Germany, and Spain, Copart also acts as a principal by buying vehicles and reselling them on its own account, which adds inventory risk that the agent model mostly avoids.

The U.S. dominates the revenue mix, contributing 83.0% of fiscal 2025 revenue versus 17.0% internationally, yet the buyer base is geographically dispersed: for U.S. vehicles sold in fiscal 2025, 69.8% of units were purchased by members registered outside the state where the vehicle was located. That statistic points to a nationwide, if not global, pool of liquidity on the demand side of the marketplace. Combined with a 31.8% net margin and a 15.9% return on equity, the numbers suggest Copart has carved out durable pricing power and efficient capital deployment. High margins on a largely fee-based model are consistent with network-driven scale: more sellers attract more buyers, and more buyers make the platform more valuable to sellers. The ROE of 15.9% is not extreme, but it is solid for a capital-intensive logistics network that must acquire and develop vehicle storage facilities.

Financial posture

At a market capitalization of $26.8 billion and a trailing P/E of 18.6, Copart is priced at a meaningful discount to many high-growth platform names, yet it remains firmly profitable. The 31.8% net margin is the headline profitability figure, and it sits well above the average for most industrial services businesses. A beta of 1.06 implies the stock has moved roughly in line with the broader market, so its risk profile does not look unusually volatile relative to the S&P 500 from a systematic-risk standpoint.

At the current snapshot, the stock trades at $28.975, essentially on top of its 50-day exponential moving average of $28.89, with an RSI of 55.8 that does not read as overbought or oversold. Pairing those technical markers with the fundamental set—P/E 18.6, net margin 31.8%, ROE 15.9%—gives the picture of a quality, cash-generative business whose valuation is not stretched by momentum standards. The company’s debt position is not flagged as elevated in the supplied data, which, alongside the margin profile, supports the view that Copart is financially conservative enough to keep funding facilities and technology without apparent distress.

Strategic priorities & outlook

Copart’s most recent 10-K filing outlines a clear operational agenda. First, the company intends to acquire and develop additional vehicle storage facilities in key markets, including foreign markets. Second, it wants to pursue global, national, and regional vehicle seller supply agreements. Third, it is expanding service offerings to vehicle sellers and members, including real-time data access and salvage management tools. Fourth, it plans to extend the application of VB3 into new markets while implementing its pricing, auction procedures, and cost efficiencies at acquired locations.

Fiscal 2025 anchors those priorities in real scale: revenues reached $4.6 billion and operating income reached $1.7 billion. Geographically, the U.S. produced 83.0% of revenue and international operations produced 17.0%, so the international-storage push has room to shift that mix over time. The 81% share of vehicles coming from insurance sellers is both a strength and a concentration note, which makes seller-supply agreements a logical priority. The 1 million registered-member database, the expansion of one U.K. facility, two Spanish facilities, and three U.S. facilities in fiscal 2025, and the ongoing VB3 rollout all point to the same strategy: densify the physical network, deepen the digital platform, and lock in more seller relationships.

Macro & geopolitical exposure

Because Copart operates in Specialty Business Services with vehicle remarketing at its core, it is exposed to several macro and geopolitical channels. The most direct is used-vehicle pricing: salvage and rebuilt vehicles are price-sensitive assets, so a sustained decline in used-car values could compress proceeds for sellers and buyers alike. Insurance claim frequency is another driver; severe weather events, accident rates, and catastrophe losses influence the volume of total-loss vehicles flowing onto Copart’s platform. Interest rates matter because financing costs affect both the dealers and rebuilders who buy at auction and the end consumers who purchase repaired vehicles.

International revenue at 17.0% of the fiscal 2025 total creates foreign-exchange exposure to the British pound, euro, Brazilian real, Canadian dollar, and others, as well as local regulatory risk around salvage-title rules, vehicle emissions standards, and export/import restrictions. Tariffs on vehicles and auto parts can ripple through the rebuilt-vehicle supply chain and affect demand from exporters. On the logistics side, fuel and transportation costs influence the economics of moving vehicles to and from storage facilities, while any broad supply-chain disruption could delay parts availability for rebuilders and reduce demand for damaged vehicles.

Recent developments

Recent news has centered on both corporate action and market commentary. On October 16, 2026, Copart completed its acquisition of ACV, according to Business Wire. That deal expands Copart’s capabilities beyond core salvage remarketing and could accelerate its digital wholesale and data-services footprint. Then, on October 19, 2026, Zacks published a note observing that Copart stock slid while the broader market rose, a reminder that short-term price action can diverge from headline market sentiment.

The same day, October 19, 2026, DefenseWorld reported that Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased 21,777 shares of Copart, an incremental institutional flow that may or may not be meaningful depending on the advisor’s total assets under management. On October 26, 2026, Seeking Alpha ran a piece titled “Copart: My Highest Conviction Position Trading At A Discount,” which argued the stock looks undervalued. None of these items alter the underlying business, but taken together they show a stock receiving post-acquisition attention and institutional buying activity alongside a defensive value-oriented write-up.

Earnings behavior & post-earnings drift

Over the last eight reported quarters, Copart has beaten the published earnings estimate five times, for a beat rate of 71%, and the average earnings surprise across those quarters is 2%. That beat rate suggests the company usually meets or exceeds the consensus, but the average surprise is modest, which indicates results are rarely blowing estimates out of the water. The more consequential pattern is the post-earnings price drift: across those same eight quarters, the average 5-day price move in the trading days after the report is -3.65%, classified as a down drift.

The most recent four quarters illustrate the asymmetry. On September 10, 2026, Copart reported EPS of $0.35 against an estimate of $0.3832, an 8.7% miss; the stock fell 2.6% the next day and 3.54% over the following five days. On May 21, 2026, it beat with EPS of $0.43 versus $0.4063, a 5.8% positive surprise, yet still declined 1.77% the next day and 4.74% over five days. The February 19, 2026 quarter was another miss: $0.36 versus $0.3925, an 8.3% gap, with a 3.11% next-day drop and a 1.33% five-day decline. The November 20, 2025 quarter was a beat at $0.41 versus $0.3897, a 5.2% surprise, but the stock slipped 0.71% the next day and 4.97% over five days.

The pattern is striking: both beats and misses have been followed by net selling pressure over the subsequent week. That does not predict the next reaction, but it does suggest the market has tended to sell the news regardless of whether Copart clears the consensus. With the next scheduled report set for November 19, 2026 after the close and the current consensus EPS estimate at $0.3972, traders may want to weigh the historical down drift alongside the current valuation and near-EMA technical setup when forming expectations.

For a deeper dive into Copart, including sell-side model revisions, price-target dispersion, and institutional ownership trends, review the full institutional verdict on the ticker rather than relying on headline data alone.