Business profile & competitive position
Copart, Inc. (CPRT) operates in the Industrials sector under the Specialty Business Services industry as a global online vehicle auction and remarketing platform. The company connects sellers—primarily auto insurance carriers—with buyers such as licensed dismantlers, rebuilders, repair licensees, used vehicle dealers, exporters, and the general public. In fiscal 2025, insurance companies supplied 81% of the vehicles Copart processed. The sales process runs largely over Copart’s proprietary Virtual Bidding Third Generation (VB3) platform, and the company maintains a database of roughly 1 million registered members. Copart functions mostly as an agent for sellers in the U.S., while in the U.K., Germany, and Spain it also acts as a principal by purchasing vehicles and reselling them for its own account.
The financial footprint aligns with a business model built on platform density and geographic reach rather than heavy physical manufacturing. Copart reported fiscal 2025 revenue of $4.6 billion and operating income of $1.7 billion, implying an operating margin near 37%. Its net margin is 31.8% and return on equity is 15.9%. Those figures are high for an industrially classified services business, and they point to meaningful pricing power, low incremental auction margins, and the network benefits of matching a national—and increasingly international—pool of buyers with a concentrated supply base.
Geography is still a U.S.-centric story: the U.S. segment produced 83.0% of fiscal 2025 revenue, while international markets contributed 17.0%. A useful demand signal is the cross-state mobility of buyers: for U.S. vehicles sold in fiscal 2025, 69.8% of units were bought by members registered outside the state where the vehicle was located. That statistic underscores how Copart’s digital platform nationalizes, and to some extent globalizes, what historically was a fragmented local salvage market.
Financial posture
At a market capitalization of $25.4 billion and a P/E ratio of 17.5, Copart carries a valuation that sits below the high-multiple tier of tech-enabled industrials despite its strong margin profile. The company’s net margin of 31.8% and ROE of 15.9% are both comfortably above the medians one would expect from a traditional industrial services operator, suggesting capital efficiency and earnings quality that investors typically assign a premium.
The business is also not unusually volatile for its sector. Its beta of 1.06 is essentially market-like. On the technical snapshot provided, the stock closed at $27.3668 with an RSI of 43.8 and a 50-day EMA of $28.96. That places the current price below its 50-day moving average, which is simply a near-term momentum observation and not a directional signal in itself.
Profitability remains the clearest takeaway from the posture data. With operating income running at roughly $1.7 billion on $4.6 billion in sales, Copart converts a high share of revenue into pretax operating cash. That operational leverage is what allows the company to fund acquisitions and facility expansion without necessarily straining its balance sheet.
Strategic priorities & outlook
Copart’s most recent SEC 10-K filing outlines four operational priorities that guide its capital deployment and growth planning. First, the company intends to acquire and develop additional vehicle storage facilities in key markets, including foreign markets. Second, it aims to pursue global, national, and regional vehicle seller supply agreements, particularly with the insurance carriers that already dominate its inbound supply. Third, it seeks to expand service offerings to vehicle sellers and members, including real-time data access and salvage management tools. Fourth, it plans to expand VB3 into new markets and implement Copart’s pricing, auction procedures, and cost efficiencies at acquired facilities.
In fiscal 2025, that strategy translated into tangible footprint growth: Copart opened one new facility in the U.K., two in Spain, and three in the U.S. The mix shows a company that is still expanding its domestic yard density while selectively adding capacity in Europe, where it also operates as a principal buyer and reseller. The service-expansion priority matters because high-margin ancillary tools—real-time data, salvage management, and buyer analytics—can deepen relationships with insurance sellers and increase attach rates without requiring proportional new real estate.
One strategic tension worth monitoring is concentration. Because insurance companies supplied 81% of fiscal 2025 volume, Copart’s top-line performance is tied to total-loss frequency, which in turn is sensitive to accident severity, repair costs, and used vehicle valuations. Winning broader seller supply agreements is therefore not just a growth objective but also a risk-mitigation lever.
Macro & geopolitical exposure
As a vehicle remarketing services company, Copart sits at the intersection of auto insurance economics, used vehicle markets, logistics, and trade flows. Its most direct macro exposure is to auto insurance claim volume: when repair costs rise or used-car prices fall, more vehicles are declared total losses, increasing the supply of salvage units Copart can auction. Conversely, high used-car values can reduce total-loss frequency and compress the inventory available to remarket.
With 17.0% of revenue generated internationally, Copart also faces currency translation effects and cross-border regulatory variation in the U.K., Germany, Spain, Brazil, Canada, the U.A.E., Finland, Oman, Ireland, and Bahrain. Vehicle registration rules, environmental standards for salvage disposal, and import/export restrictions on damaged vehicles all fall within the ordinary regulatory perimeter of the industry. Trade policy matters too: tariffs on used auto parts, steel, and finished vehicles can alter buyer demand from dismantlers and exporters, two important buyer groups on the platform.
The business is also implicitly exposed to weather and catastrophic events, which generate spikes in insurance total-loss volume, and to transportation and fuel costs, because moving inoperable vehicles from tow yards to auction facilities is a core cost of doing business. Interest rates affect the floor-plan financing used by many used-vehicle dealers and exporters, so credit conditions can influence bid aggressiveness in any given quarter.
Recent developments
The most significant headline in the recent news set is the completion of Copart’s acquisition of ACV, announced on October 16, 2026, via businesswire.com. The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act waiting period for the deal had already expired on October 14, 2026, also announced by businesswire.com, clearing the regulatory path for the close. ACV operates a wholesale automotive digital marketplace and condition-reporting platform, so the deal fits squarely with the 10-K priority of expanding digital services and buyer-seller connectivity beyond Copart’s traditional salvage core.
Institutional flow around the acquisition close has been active. On October 19, 2026, defenseworld.net reported that Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased 21,777 shares of Copart. Two days earlier, on October 14, 2026, defenseworld.net also reported that NorthCrest Asset Management LLC acquired shares of CPRT. These filings show money managers repositioning around the ACV close, though that activity alone does not indicate a consensus view on valuation.
Investors following the stock into the next quarter will likely focus on integration commentary around ACV, including whether the acquisition broadens Copart’s non-salvage remarketing reach or adds incremental technology that can be embedded into VB3.
Earnings behavior & post-earnings drift
Over the last eight reported quarters, Copart has beaten earnings estimates 5 times, for a beat rate of 71%. The average earnings surprise across those quarters is 2%. Despite a positive surprise history, the average 5-day price move in the trading sessions following those reports is -3.65%, and the drift direction is classified as down. That means the market has, on average, sold the stock after Copart’s releases regardless of whether the headline number beat or missed.
The most recent quarters reinforce the pattern. For 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 sessions. For May 21, 2026, the company reported EPS of $0.43 versus an estimate of $0.4063, a 5.8% beat, yet the stock still fell 1.77% the next day and 4.74% over five sessions. For February 19, 2026, EPS of $0.36 missed the $0.3925 estimate by 8.3%, with the stock dropping 3.11% the next day and 1.33% over five days. For November 20, 2025, EPS of $0.41 beat the $0.3897 estimate by 5.2%, but the stock still slid 0.71% the next day and 4.97% over five sessions.
One interpretation is that the unofficial consensus may have run ahead of published estimates, or that the market has been conditioned to expect beats and has penalized the stock when guidance, margins, or seller-volume commentary did not exceed already-elevated expectations. Copart’s next scheduled earnings release is November 19, 2026, after the close, with a consensus EPS estimate of $0.397.
For a deeper dive into how institutional and sell-side research currently assess Copart after the ACV close, including detailed model updates and risk-factor revisions, readers should look at the full institutional verdict.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Copart’s main business and where does its revenue come from?
Copart is an online vehicle auction and vehicle remarketing services company. In fiscal 2025, the U.S. segment generated 83.0% of its $4.6 billion in revenue, while international markets contributed 17.0%. Insurance companies supplied 81% of the vehicles processed during the year.
What has CPRT’s stock typically done after earnings?
Over the last eight quarters, Copart has beaten earnings estimates 71% of the time with an average surprise of 2%. Despite that, the average 5-day post-earnings drift is -3.65%, classified as downward. In the most recent four quarters, the stock declined over the next five sessions even after two of the reports beat estimates.
What are Copart’s stated strategic priorities?
According to its most recent 10-K, Copart’s priorities are to acquire and develop vehicle storage facilities in key foreign and domestic markets, pursue vehicle seller supply agreements, expand digital service offerings such as real-time data access and salvage management tools, and extend its VB3 auction platform into new markets while applying its pricing and cost efficiencies to acquired facilities.
| Reported | Actual | Estimate | Surprise | 1D Move | 5D Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-10 | $0.35 | $0.3832 | -8.7% | -2.6% | -3.54% |
| 2026-05-21 | $0.43 | $0.4063 | +5.8% | -1.77% | -4.74% |
| 2026-02-19 | $0.36 | $0.3925 | -8.3% | -3.11% | -1.33% |
| 2025-11-20 | $0.41 | $0.3897 | +5.2% | -0.71% | -4.97% |
| 2025-09-04 | $0.41 | $0.3613 | +13.5% | - | - |
| 2025-05-22 | $0.42 | $0.4167 | +0.8% | - | - |
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