Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Craig Kennison: Hey, good morning and thank you for taking my questions as well. I wanted to follow up on Hurricane Ian. I believe you mentioned 70,000 assignments through the end of October. Do you think that will be the total, or could there be more on the way?

Jeff Liaw: More, but modestly so.

Craig Kennison: Got it. And then I know in the past, sometimes you take losses overall on catastrophes when they’re particularly expensive, like something like this. Is that the expectation this time around? Or could you see kind of revenue offset costs in the coming quarters such that this would be closer to breakeven?

Jeff Liaw: A fair question, Craig. I think, in the aggregate, so if you were to take a truly bird’s eye view of the catastrophic events, certainly taking into account the many millions, likely hundreds of millions of capital we’ve deployed to build the catastrophic facilities to buy the equipment, the trucks, the transporters, the loaders and to train and employ the people, and the technology, specifically for cat that we’ve also developed as well. In the aggregate, by the time you consider those costs, the catastrophic events are surely not a profitable endeavor for us, but a necessary one. We don’t root for catastrophic weather events, but we do believe that they draw the contrast still greater between us and others in the industry in terms of our capabilities in those times of stress. So, in the aggregates, no, they are not profitable events for us.

Craig Kennison: Thank you. And then trying — we are trying to understand the impact of ASPs as they are correlated with the Manheim Index and used car values. Is there any data you can share with us with respect to ASPs maybe in the month of November, just to get a feel for what the year-over-year declines might look like as it relates to your model?

Jeff Liaw: You’ll find we don’t, as you know, comment intra-quarter about the current quarter. But I would say that through the end of the first quarter, ASPs were still up in somewhat meaningfully year-over-year. 5% of the number, if I have the number correct off the top of my head here. So, ASPs were rising year-over-year. Manheim certainly down over that same period, so we are correlated. There are some leads and lags and so you’ll never see a perfect regression there between us and other such third-party variables. But the market, broadly speaking, I think we still observe vehicle shortages. If you wanted to go buy a new car today, you might not have your pick or if you did, it might not come for two or three or four months down the road.

Craig Kennison: Thanks. And lastly, I wanted to ask about Europe and your appetite for land there. We’ve certainly got a strong US dollar today and you have an urgent need to land over the course of decades, I suppose. Would you be inclined to be more aggressive in Europe to acquire that land now that you’ve got momentum in business and you’ve got maybe an advantage on currency?

Jeff Liaw: Not more so, meaning we have an appetite for meaningful land investments to support our major incumbent businesses in Europe as well as our growing businesses in Europe. The currency is, in near-term — it’s a nudge in that direction, but it’s not a meaningful influence. We’re buying this land for 10, 20 and 50-year use. So, variations of 5%, 10%, 20%, 30% even, don’t necessarily affect that calculus.

Craig Kennison: Got it. Thank you.

Jeff Liaw: Thanks Craig.

Operator: Our next question is from the line of Bret Jordan with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst: This is Patrick on for Bret Jordan and thanks for taking our questions. If you could talk a little bit more about recent volume trends. Are there any signs of volumes picking up as volumes drop or any signs of recent market share gains?