On September 10, 2026, Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) reported fourth-quarter results for the period ended July 31, 2026, and used the call to announce an all-cash acquisition of digital auto marketplace ACV Auctions. Revenue grew 2.4% to $1.2 billion, but gross profit fell 5.5% to $481.4 million and net income dropped 17.4% to $327.4 million. Diluted EPS came in at $0.35 against $0.41 a year earlier.
Wall Street spent the following days separating the deal from the quarter.
ACV’s Strategic Upside Versus Weakening Core Trends
Barrington’s Gary Prestopino saw enough in the transaction to move off the sidelines, upgrading Copart, Inc. to Outperform from Market Perform with a $40 target. His argument is that combining Copart’s physical network with ACV’s digital marketplace, at an implied equity value of $1.9 billion or $10.50 per share in cash, creates an end-to-end remarketing platform and opens a new growth vector in dealer-to-dealer and commercial vehicle auctions.
JPMorgan’s Jash Patwa had already upgraded Copart, Inc. to Overweight from Neutral ahead of the print, raising his target to $40 from $32 on encouraging salvage industry channel checks, web scraping data showing Copart gaining share with a carrier across several states, and a collision cycle he sees turning more favorable as insurance penetration recovers.
Freedom Broker, which trimmed its target to $36 from $39 while keeping a Buy rating, called the report mixed but framed the ACV move as a strong pivot toward digital marketplace expansion.
Baird’s read was simpler: the quarter fell short of expectations, and the firm cut its target to $38 from $42 while holding an Outperform rating.
The numbers support that.
Operating expense per car rose 12.7% year-over-year as Copart funded long-haul delivery, TitleExpress, and dedicated wholesale facilities, while US facility costs climbed 7.7%. Lower interest income, a consequence of $1.63 billion in buybacks earlier in the fiscal year, added pressure. The core insurance business is cooling, with global insurance units down 4.2% and domestic assignments down 7.5%. For the full year, revenue grew just 0.4% to $4.7 billion while net income fell 4.4%.
Meanwhile, management expects the ACV transaction to be neutral to EPS in the first full year of ownership and accretive in fiscal 2028 and beyond, which leaves a period of integration risk before the strategic case shows up in earnings.
What The Smart Money Sees
AQR Capital Management held the largest hedge fund position, 14.02 million shares worth $395 million as of the second quarter of 2026, up 49% from 10.71 million shares the prior quarter.
Akre Capital Management, the second-largest holder, trimmed 1% to $225 million.
The sharpest moves came from Marshall Wace, which raised its stake 437%, Millennium Management at 77%, and Citadel Investment Group at 62%.
Overall hedge fund ownership rose to 60 funds from 57 between the first and second quarters of 2026. Short interest sits at just 5.09% of float, and shares trade at 18.90 times forward earnings as of September 15, 2026.
Takeaway
The split on Copart is not really bull versus bear, it is deal versus quarter. Barrington and JPMorgan are underwriting a structural change in what Copart, Inc. sells and to whom; Baird and Freedom Broker are marking down a business where costs per car rose 12.7% while insurance volumes shrank.
The bridge between them is fiscal 2028, when management expects ACV to turn accretive. Until then, Copart, Inc. has to integrate ACV while its core margin base is already compressing.
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