Copart reports today with the debate squarely focused on whether the company can rekindle unit growth — not just price gains.
Options positioning has hardened further into the print. The put/call ratio edged up to 0.46, now running 2.4 standard deviations above its 20-day average of 0.42. That z-score has been elevated for several sessions and confirms a pattern established yesterday: relative to its own baseline, this is the most defensive options posture Copart has seen in months. The stock closed at $33.04 on Wednesday — down about 1% on the month and essentially flat on the week — leaving it well below the analyst consensus target near $42. The borrow market adds nothing to the bear case: availability is effectively at the platform ceiling, cost to borrow is a negligible 0.45%, and short interest has eased to 3.3% of the free float after touching a recent high above 3.7% in early May. There is no squeeze dynamic here. The options caution is about the fundamental question, not a technical squeeze setup.
The debate centres on volume versus price. Bulls point to a 5.6% jump in global average selling prices in the most recent quarter and the growing pull of international buyers, now representing 38% of units purchased — a sign that Copart's VB3 platform is deepening its global reach. Bears counter that unit growth has been depressed for two consecutive quarters, and that the RBA automotive division saw gross transaction value per lot slip 1% in the most recent period. That tension is reflected in analyst positioning: JP Morgan and Barclays both trimmed targets following the February print — JP Morgan to $34, Barclays to $32 — while Baird held its Outperform but also cut its target, to $48. The most recent analyst changes are from February 2026, so the current consensus mean near $42 represents a significant gap to the $33 price; the Street remains constructive in aggregate, but the bears are closer to spot. Note that the HSBC upgrade to Buy with a $62 target from September 2025 is now stale relative to where the stock trades.
Insider activity has been consistently one-directional. CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold roughly $870,000 of stock in April, following similar-sized disposals in January and October. The trades carry low significance scores and appear to be scheduled, but the consistent pace of CEO selling into a declining stock — shares are off roughly 25% from their late-2025 highs near $44 — is a background note the market will weigh.
Today's print tests whether the ASP momentum that anchored the bull case can survive another quarter of soft volumes, or whether the unit growth gap finally closes enough to justify a re-rating from a stock trading at a P/E of just over 20 times — its lowest multiple in recent memory.
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