CPRT

Business profile & competitive position

Copart, Inc. operates in the Industrials sector under the Specialty Business Services industry. Its core business is online vehicle auctions and vehicle remarketing, delivered primarily through its Virtual Bidding Third Generation platform, or VB3. The company runs a global network spanning the U.S., U.K., Germany, Brazil, Canada, U.A.E., Spain, Finland, Oman, the Republic of Ireland, and Bahrain, and its seller base is dominated by insurance companies, which supplied 81% of vehicles processed in fiscal 2025. Buyers on the platform include licensed dismantlers, rebuilders, repair licensees, used vehicle dealers, exporters, and, in some markets, the general public. Copart’s mix is still heavily U.S.-centric: in fiscal 2025 the U.S. segment generated 83.0% of revenue, while international operations contributed 17.0%.

The business model shows signs of platform-driven efficiency. In fiscal 2025 Copart reported $4.6 billion in revenue and $1.7 billion in operating income. A net margin of 31.8% and return on equity of 15.9% are high for an Industrials service business, suggesting the company extracts solid economics from auction fees and scale. Those figures do not by themselves prove an unassailable moat, but they are consistent with a two-sided marketplace that has spent years aggregating buyers and sellers: the 10-K notes that 69.8% of U.S. vehicles sold in fiscal 2025 were bought by members registered outside the state where the vehicle was located, implying national liquidity that local competitors would struggle to replicate.

Financial posture

At a market cap of $25.6 billion, Copart trades at a P/E ratio of 17.7. That multiple sits alongside a 31.8% net margin and a 15.9% ROE, while beta is 1.03, meaning the stock has historically moved roughly in line with the broader market. The current snapshot puts the share price at $27.65, with the 50-day exponential moving average at $29.90 and the RSI at 35.8. The RSI reading is below 40, a level often associated with near-term oversold conditions, though that is a price-technical observation rather than a directional signal.

Taken together, the numbers portray a highly profitable, relatively low-beta industrial services operator with valuation not far from market averages. The 31.8% net margin is unusually wide for the sector and helps explain how the company can fund facility expansion, technology development, and bolt-on acquisitions while still generating mid-teens returns on equity.

Strategic priorities & outlook

Copart’s most recent 10-K outlines a clear operational playbook. The company intends to acquire and develop additional vehicle storage facilities in key markets, including foreign markets, and to pursue global, national, and regional vehicle seller supply agreements. It also aims to expand the services it offers sellers and members, particularly through real-time data access and salvage management tools, and to extend VB3 into new markets while rolling out Copart’s pricing, auction procedures, and cost efficiencies at acquired facilities.

Recent facility growth reflects that strategy: Copart opened one new location in the U.K., two in Spain, and three in the U.S. during fiscal 2025, while maintaining a database of approximately 1 million registered members. The most notable near-term strategic event is the proposed acquisition of ACV Auctions. On October 1, 2026, Copart announced an extension of its tender offer to acquire ACV, and on September 30, 2026, ACV investor alert Kahn Swick & Foti began investigating the adequacy of price and process in the proposed sale. That transaction, if completed, would broaden Copart’s reach into dealer-focused digital wholesale auctions, but the headline uncertainty shows it remains a work in progress.

Macro & geopolitical exposure

Because Copart sits in Specialty Business Services and Vehicle remarketing, its revenue is linked to the flow of total-loss and damaged vehicles through the insurance ecosystem rather than to new-car manufacturing alone. Key macro exposures include accident frequency and severity, weather-related catastrophe losses, and used-vehicle pricing trends, all of which influence salvage volumes and auction values. Insurance industry consolidation or changes in claims-handling practices would flow through to Copart because insurers supplied 81% of vehicles processed in fiscal 2025.

Currency risk applies to the 17.0% of revenue generated outside the U.S., particularly in the U.K., eurozone, Brazil, and smaller Middle East markets. Trade policy also matters: tariffs on used vehicles or auto parts, and shipping costs for exporters who bid through VB3, can affect buyer demand and realized auction prices. Finally, state and federal regulation around salvage titles, environmental disposal, and cross-border vehicle movements are inherent facts of life for the industry.

Recent developments

Recent CPRT headlines capture the push-pull around stock performance and the ACV deal. On October 5, 2026, Zacks noted that Copart had exceeded market returns. That followed an October 1, 2026 BusinessWire headline in which Copart announced an extension of its tender offer to acquire ACV, and a September 30, 2026 BusinessWire report that Kahn Swick & Foti was investigating whether the proposed ACV sale price and process were adequate for shareholders. Earlier, on September 25, 2026, Zacks flagged that Copart stock had dropped despite broader market gains. The clustering of ACV-related news around late September and early October ties the recent narrative squarely to M&A execution, while the Zacks pieces highlight day-to-day price performance without offering a fundamental verdict.

Earnings behavior & post-earnings drift

Over the last eight reported quarters, Copart has beaten the official consensus 5 times, or 62.5% of the time, with an average earnings surprise of 2%. The more striking pattern is the post-earnings price drift: across those same quarters, the average 5-day move after the report has been -3.65%, classified as a downward drift. In other words, even beats have often been followed by selling pressure in the days that followed.

The last four quarters illustrate the dynamic. On September 10, 2026, Copart reported EPS of $0.35 against an estimate of $0.3832, an 8.7% miss, and the stock fell 2.6% the next day and 3.54% over the following five sessions. On May 21, 2026, the company posted EPS of $0.43 versus $0.4063, a 5.8% beat, yet the stock still fell 1.77% the next day and 4.74% over five days. On February 19, 2026, a miss of 8.3% (actual $0.36 vs. estimate $0.3925) produced a next-day drop of 3.11% and a five-day decline of 1.33%. On November 20, 2025, a 5.2% beat (actual $0.41 vs. estimate $0.3897) was followed by a next-day decline of 0.71% and a five-day slide of 4.97%.

The next scheduled report is November 19, 2026 after the close, with the market’s real expectation currently at $0.41 EPS. Given the historical tendency toward negative post-earnings drift, traders watching CPRT should note that the reaction following the report has repeatedly mattered more than the beat-or-miss binary.

For a deeper dive into how institutional analysts are interpreting these numbers, the ACV acquisition, and the November 2026 earnings setup, readers should review the full institutional verdict rather than relying on summary snapshots alone.