Copart ($CPRT) podcast mentions
Timestamped Copart ($CPRT) mentions across our podcast corpus.
Welcome back to The Investor's Podcast, episode 848. And the last stock I pitched to you, Stig Brodersen, was Copart, which is a company that we looked at last year. And today we'll have yet another company that we covered before and that deserves another look. And that company is Meta. And I can already spoil that I started building a position in it in my personal account not too long ago.
Daniel Mahncke · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP848: Meta (META): What the Market Misses? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-24The refunds will be provided to those who did not receive any federal subsidies and only in the 30 states where exchanges are run by the federal government. Checks will be sent out starting in October. Now for a look at a few other articles that are trending. SpaceX signs a $1 billion a month AI hosting deal. And this is a new article from our head of quantitative strategy, Stephen Kress. It's about the month of September and how it has historically been a challenging month for stocks. The article is entitled, It's September: Brace for Impact with Top Growth and Income Stocks. On Wall Street, stock index futures are in the green. Crude oil is down 2.1% at $100 a barrel. Brent crude is down 2.5% at $104. The FTSE 100 is up 0.3% and the DAX is up 0.4%. ACV Auctions is on our biggest movers list. ACVA is up 44% after Copart agreed to acquire the digital dealer auction platform for $10 $1.50 per share in cash, implying an equity value of $1.9 billion. And a couple of items for you on today's economic calendar: At 8:30 AM, CPI. Energy costs are expected to boost CPI again in August, with an increase of 0.4% month-on-month and 3.4% year-on-year. And at 10:00 AM, Consumer Sentiment. That's it for today's Wall Street Breakfast. Thanks for listening. To take full advantage of Seeking Alpha with coverage on significant stocks and ETFs, become a premium subscriber. Check out seekingalpha.com/subscriptions. I'm your host, Julie Morgan. Go out and make it a great day.
Julie Morgan · Wall Street Breakfast · Oracle's growth spell · 2026-09-11Perhaps we should start with our own history with Copart. You pitched the stock in October of last year, and at that point, Copart was already down 30% from all-time highs. But as we know today, there was still some room for even more pullbacks beyond that. And we don't try to time the market, and we didn't sell because we speculated on where the stock was going to go in the next few months. But it did feel like the right decision to free up some capital by selling Copart to invest it elsewhere. And the stock has had a rough time since then, which makes the decision look prescient, even if it was mostly just random luck.
Preston Pysh · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10I think it's always random luck whenever we make buy or sell decisions. No, but jokes aside, I mean, Copart has been a 2% position back then when we bought it. And just for context, a 2% position usually means it's sort of on probation. So we're basically not yet completely sold on it, either because of valuation or simply because we have some quality concerns. And I think I could speak for the both of us when I say that with Copart, it was certainly the former. I think we all know the quality is quite high, but as you said, the stock was perhaps fairly valued, definitely not cheap at that point. And I feel like sometimes you also just need to zoom out and simplify so you don't miss the most important things. And if you do that for Copart, you will find out why the stock is where it currently is, which is that top line growth has been slowing down. Dramatically if you look at the last 2 or 3 years. So that was the major common denominator in our Biggest Loser episode just a couple of weeks ago, that stock prices tend to follow top-line growth and Copart slowed down from just mid-teens to basically no growth at all.
Daniel Mahncke · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10That's the story for today. Thanks for tuning in, folks. No, I'm joking, of course. What is interesting for Copart, I think, is that while they have the reputation as being one of these high-quality compounders. They have had these growth slowdowns before, and we're used to the software charts by now that only go in basically one direction, up into the right, but Copart is fundamentally a more cyclical business. And so the last time revenue growth stalled out was in 2015, but again, that was not fatal to shareholders by any means. And to be fair, it does help that earnings per share grew consistently despite some revenue volatility, but Before we get deeper into the numbers and what has changed since our first time pitching the company, how about you just give us a little summary of the pitch for Copart first so we're all on the same page?
Preston Pysh · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10Yeah. So if I had to summarize Copart's business in just one sentence, it would probably be that Copart is a marketplace for total cars. So every year, millions of cars reach the end of what you can call their useful life, whether that would be through a crash or a hailstorm, a flood, or just because of old age, which is most often the actual reason. But most of those cars, they go to an insurance company, and those insurance companies are essentially Copart's main customer base. So they want to get rid of the car, and Copart takes care of that by connecting the seller, which is the insurance company, with a potential buyer. And buyers usually include, you know, dismantlers or recyclers, used car dealers, international exporters, auto repair shops, but also individual, let's say hobbyists or private buyers from basically all around the world.
Daniel Mahncke · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10Many cars sold through Copart to private buyers actually end up on South American streets, for example, from what I've heard. I think when we first did the episode, you'd actually just gotten back from a little vacation in the Dominican Republic, and I remember you saying that a lot of the cars there looked like they could have been from a Copart lot.
Preston Pysh · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10Yeah, I think emerging markets tend to be where Copart's cars are being bought by private buyers. So There were definitely some cars in the Dominican Republic that wouldn't have passed the German TÜV. And I actually talked to you about it before the episode because I hoped you might know what the German TÜV actually is. You didn't. And so just for context for the American listeners, the TÜV is the official technical inspection association in Germany. And I've Googled it and apparently there's no equivalent in the US. And car safety for you guys is more of a state-to-state department thing, I guess. You can think of it as every single German car has to go to the German TÜV, and only if they approve, you can actually drive it on the streets. And I should add that in its core business, Copart doesn't take ownership of any of the cars. So it's just a marketplace that as part of its service also handles the logistics, which is kind of like Amazon but for used cars. So Copart tows the vehicles, they, you know, park them in one of their yards, they photograph them, they handle the paperwork, and then they run the auction where they actually sell those cars. Then they basically take a fee from both the seller side, so those are the insurance companies, and the buyer side, which for example could be, you know, a dealer.
Daniel Mahncke · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10And just to run through a quick example so we're all on the same page, let's say you get rear-ended and your insurer now has a decision to make, either repair the car or write it off and pay you out. And if the repair costs, let's say $5,000, and the insurer thinks it can recover more than $5,000 by selling the wrecked car, it writes the car off and sells it, and if not, it repairs it. And so in the industry, you call the outcome of that decision the total loss frequency, the percentage of accident claims where the insurer decides the car isn't worth repairing. And the higher the total loss frequency, the better it is for Copart because that means they're getting more cars coming into their platform.
Preston Pysh · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10And the interesting part in the last decades is that this has been a major tailwind for Copart. So Jay Adair, who is the old and also the new CEO, and we'll explain that later on in the episode, he recently said in an investor call that the total loss frequency when he started, which was about 35 years ago, was only 8%.
Daniel Mahncke · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10There are a lot of these photos of, I think mostly Teslas, but that's just because they're the most modern cars out there right now, where you just see a minor accident happening and then suddenly the car is totaled and it looks completely fine to be honest. There's just some, you know, cameras that were hit and even that can total a car by now. But another interesting point that the ex-CEO Jeff Liao made in one of his latest earnings calls is that Copilot is not only a passive beneficiary of, you know, an increase in the total loss frequency, but they actually help drive it upward. So basically every additional dollar that Copart gets for a car at an auction makes it more attractive for insurers to just total the car and then send it to Copart for auction. And he sort of framed it as basically competing with the repair shops, right? Every car that goes to Copart and doesn't get into a repair shop is a win for them. So the higher the returns Copart generates, the more often it wins the right to resolve that claim instead of that car going to the body shop. And it's a great system because it also aligns Copart and the insurance companies much better. So not only is it more profitable for the insurance business to give Copart the cars and the volume, but Copart's fees also scale with higher sales prices. Then on the seller side, they often use, and I think I mentioned that last time, something that is called percentage incentive program. So basically that means that Copart's fees is a percentage of the car's sale price, and buyer fees typically range from 7% to 13% depending on the car and the buyer's volume.
Daniel Mahncke · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10Yeah. So as you said, basically the vast majority of revenue comes from service revenue, which is the business that we just discussed, and it's called service because again, Copart is doing a lot of the logistics and they basically take on what otherwise insurance companies would need to do. That's why they call it service. The other 15 or so percent of the business come from what they call vehicle sales. So that's the part of the business where Copart actually takes ownership of a car and then sells it through its own channel. So that model is a lot more common in Copart's international businesses. And again, we talked about that last time. Mostly that's the case because the service model is established in the US. But it's not yet widely adopted in most international markets. And to show international customers the advantages of selling on Copart, which again primarily comes from the liquidity that the auction offers, they basically buy cars outright and then sell them as proof of the model in their own auction. And basically the goal is that over time they can convert them into the fee or the service model, which is a much higher margin business for Copart. And this works quite well. International service revenue is up almost 20% while vehicle revenue is dropping close to 20%. Now obviously you might ask yourself, why is it good to see revenue drop, in this case vehicle revenue? But the reason is that that means international markets are in fact adopting the higher margin service model, which is what you want to see. Actually, in one of the latest earnings calls, they point out Germany as an example because Germany's model is completely different from the US model. So when a car is deemed a total loss here, the insurer traditionally pays the policyholder the replacement value minus the wreck's residual value. And then the policyholder keeps the wreck basically and has to sell it themselves. And that's a pretty bad model because, you know, at the end you're still sitting on your totaled car and you have to deal with selling it yourself. I should add though, this is not always the case. Unfortunately for us, my dad just crashed his car recently and the entire side is a huge scratch and you basically need completely new doors for the entire side.
Daniel Mahncke · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10Yeah, what could have technically happened is that the insurance pays him the money, if they would've done so, then he would get a cheap repair, let's say in Poland, for the doors. Then he gets the car back and he has the money, and then he could sell that car, you know, with sort of not telling about the actual damage. And that's how you can make a profit. Of course, it's illegal, but yeah, that's what we discussed in the Auto1 episode. Copart has now convinced some of the biggest insurance companies in Germany to switch to its service model. And since Copart has less than 10% market share and actually no real competitor in Europe, this could be a huge opportunity because you don't have a duopoly, which we'll get to in the US, where basically insurers will always split the volume. In this case, all the volume and all the growth is only going to Copart in the future. Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors.
Daniel Mahncke · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10Margins are already up significantly for the international business, while US EBIT, which is earnings before interest and taxes, it's just a fancy term for operating profit, it's up less than 4%, which is not particularly inspiring, while international EBIT was up 50% year over year. So we're seeing an explosion in the operating profits from Copart's international business. But moving on here, how about we go ahead and continue the conversation and talk about Copart's moats? I think there's a reason we like the business enough to include it in the portfolio, even if it was only there for a short while. And also regarding our decision to potentially add Copart again today back to the portfolio, I think the most important thing for us to know is whether the moat is still intact.
Preston Pysh · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10Stig Brodersen: Yeah. And I would say that the first one is still intact, and I feel like it's one of the things that everyone knows about Copart right now, and it's actually Copart's land. So it's all the yards that they own. I've literally heard people say they've never looked at Copart, they never looked at the company, they don't know anything but the fact that they own their land, which is kind of funny because I think every Copart pitch is initially starting with, hey, the one great thing, the one moat is They own their land and their competitors don't. But you just can't skip that part even though it seems repetitive because again, Copart operates in the US in a duopoly with IAA. That's their main competitor. And IAA doesn't own its land, it's renting the land. And as we'll see later when we talk about the financials a bit more, that is a major factor. There's also a limited amount of land that still can be turned into a massive salvage yard. And since Copart owns 250 of such locations globally, The majority of them obviously in the US, it's increasingly hard to get the same expansion in terms of yards for any competitor.
Daniel Mahncke · The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · TIP845: Copart Stock (CPRT): Is Copart Now a Buy? w/ Daniel Mahncke & Shawn O'Malley · 2026-09-10