One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$41.46 our estimate vs market $29.95
Wall Street consensus: $40.80 (-1.6% lower than our fair-value estimate)
28% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Copart, Inc.
CPRT · NMS · Industrials · Specialty Business Services
Current price
$29.95
52-week range
$26.81 - $48.77
Market cap
$27.73B
Balance sheet
Healthy
101.67x Strong cushion
Net cash $4.11B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
2 Rewards
1 Risk
2 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Returns 17.6% on equity, ahead of 83% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 39.3% to 37.5% over 3 years.
What this company does
Copart, Inc.
Copart operates a global online auction, like an eBay for cars, primarily helping insurance companies sell vehicles that have been in accidents. The company makes money by taking a fee from each vehicle sold, which provides a steady business since car accidents happen consistently. This business model gives them strong profit margins (the percentage of sales a company keeps after costs), as selling more cars on their existing platform doesn't add much extra expense.
How the company got here
Copart started in 1982 with a single salvage yard in California, founded by Willis J. Johnson. A key turning point was in 1994 when the company became publicly traded, which provided the money to expand across the country. Another major shift happened when Copart moved from live, in-person auctions to a fully online auction model, creating a global marketplace for its vehicles. This early adoption of technology allowed them to connect sellers with a much larger base of buyers worldwide and has been central to their growth. Over the years, the company has expanded into many countries outside the U.S., including the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, and Spain.
What it actually does
Copart runs online auctions to sell vehicles, most of which are damaged and have been declared a "total loss" by insurance companies (meaning it would cost more to fix the car than it's worth). Think of it as an eBay for damaged cars. Insurance companies, rental car companies, and car dealerships pay Copart to pick up, store, and sell these vehicles. Buyers from all over the world, such as vehicle dismantlers (people who take cars apart for spare parts), rebuilders, and used car dealers, then bid on these vehicles through Copart's website.
United States
This is the company's original and largest business segment, making up the vast majority of its revenue. In the U.S., Copart operates a large network of over 200 physical locations where they store thousands of vehicles waiting to be auctioned online. The primary sellers are American insurance companies that need to dispose of cars from accidents, thefts, or weather events like hurricanes and floods. Copart earns fees from these sellers for its services, which include towing, storing the vehicle, handling the title paperwork, and running the online auction.
International
This segment includes all of Copart's operations outside of the United States, in countries across Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. It functions just like the U.S. business, running online auctions for damaged vehicles, but on a smaller scale. The main customers are insurance companies and other vehicle sellers within those specific countries. While this is a smaller part of the company's total business, it has been a key area of growth as Copart continues to expand its physical yard network into new countries.
What management is betting on now
The company's leadership is focused on three main areas for growth. First, they are pushing to expand their core insurance-based business internationally, particularly in markets like Germany. Second, they are working to grow their business in the "whole car" market, which means auctioning undamaged, used cars from sellers like dealerships and rental car companies, not just damaged ones from insurers. Finally, they are continuing to invest in technology to improve their online auction platform and the services they provide to both buyers and sellers.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q4
$301.33M
FY2025 Q1
$245.52M
FY2025 Q2
$4.05M
FY2025 Q3
$630.41M
FY2025 Q4
$350.83M
FY2026 Q1
$427.21M
FY2026 Q2
$57.89M
FY2026 Q3
$503.31M
Revenue
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Net income
$402.40M
Diluted EPS
0.43
Operating cash flow
$584.20M
Free cash flow
$503.31M
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Sources
Revenue
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Net income
$350.73M
Diluted EPS
0.36
Operating cash flow
$127.50M
Free cash flow
$57.89M
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Sources
Revenue
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Net income
$403.71M
Diluted EPS
0.41
Operating cash flow
$535.25M
Free cash flow
$427.21M
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Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$396.35M
Diluted EPS
0.40
Operating cash flow
$438.48M
Free cash flow
$350.83M
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Sources
Revenue
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Net income
$406.61M
Diluted EPS
0.42
Operating cash flow
$700.87M
Free cash flow
$630.41M
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Sources
Revenue
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Net income
$387.40M
Diluted EPS
0.40
Operating cash flow
$178.13M
Free cash flow
$4.05M
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Sources
Revenue
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Net income
$362.09M
Diluted EPS
0.37
Operating cash flow
$482.27M
Free cash flow
$245.52M
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Sources
Revenue
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Net income
$322.57M
Diluted EPS
0.34
Operating cash flow
$439.22M
Free cash flow
$301.33M
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Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $41.46 vs current price $29.95
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $40.80 (-1.6% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $41.46 a share — about 38.4% above today's price of $29.95, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net cash $4.1B - more cash than debt. Interest coverage 101.7x.
Net debt
$-4.11B
Interest coverage
101.67x
Copart, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 101.7 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
CPRT
BASELINE
Copart, Inc.
Total debt $93.12M Interest coverage 101.67x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $4.70B Interest coverage 3.86x -96% vs CPRT Carries about 26.3x less debt cushion than CPRT.
Total debt $2.47B Interest coverage 11.25x -89% vs CPRT Carries about 9.0x less debt cushion than CPRT.
Total debt $249.70M Interest coverage -6.57x -100% vs CPRT This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with CPRT.
Total debt $5.31B Interest coverage 4.85x -95% vs CPRT Carries about 21.0x less debt cushion than CPRT.
What you should know
The case for and against CPRT
2 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Returns 17.6% on equity, ahead of 83% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Operating margin compressed from 39.3% to 37.5% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
18.60x
Forward P/E
16.48x
P/B
3.16x
P/S
5.98x
EV/EBITDA
12.43x
PEG ratio
3.86x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
47.5%
Operating margin
37.5%
Net margin
33.5%
ROE
17.6%
ROA
11.3%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.01x
Current ratio
7.61x
Quick ratio
7.29x
Total debt
$93.12M
Total cash
$4.20B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$2.21B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
11.0%
EPS TTM
1.61
EPS 5Y CAGR
12.1%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$1.69B
Free CF TTM
$1.23B
FCF margin
55.8%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
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