Copart shares fall after earnings miss estimates

Copart shares drop after 4th-quarter earnings come in below Wall Street estimates

• On 2:26 pm EDT, Thursday September 24, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Copart Inc., a junk-car-auction company, tumbled more than 14 percent on Thursday following weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Scot Ciccarelli said in a note to investors that the Fairfield, Conn., company also faced tough scrap and steel-pricing comparisons compared with last year, with prices down roughly 60 percent.

"We expect one more difficult pricing comparison and then comparisons should ease dramatically," said Ciccarelli, who maintained an "Outperform" rating on the company.

Wednesday, Copart said its profit fell 15 percent as sales dropped amid lower auction-fee revenue and higher selling, general and administrative expenses. The results fell shy of investors' expectations.

Copart shares fell $5.38, to $32.86 in Thursday afternoon trading.