Copart Inc. Stock (CPRT) Basic Data, Overview
Copart, Inc. (CPRT), hereinafter referred to as Copart (CPRT), is an American-based company founded in 1982 and headquartered in Westlake, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, Texas, and went public in 1994. It has since become one of the world's leading online vehicle auction providers, specializing primarily in the global sale of total loss, salvage, insurance, fleet and used vehicles. As of 2024, Copart (CPRT) had more than 9500 employees worldwide and serves customers in more than 200 countries from more than 400 locations, primarily in North America, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Brazil.
The company sells vehicles through its proprietary VB3 online auction system, enabling real-time bidding from around the world. Copart (CPRT) not only sells vehicles, but also provides comprehensive logistics, storage, transportation and vehicle management services to its partners, primarily insurance companies, law enforcement agencies, leasing companies and dealers. Its business model is built on solid foundations: owned locations, a scalable digital platform and a globally accessible, growing salvage market that is also positively affected by the insurance and automotive cycles.
Market capitalization: 46 billion USD (2025.07.12.)
Investor relations: https://www.copart.com/content/us/en/investor-relations/investor-relations
iO Charts share subpage: CPRT
📒Table of Contents📒
I have created a table of contents to make it easier for you to navigate the longer articles:
- Coper (CPRT) specialties
- How does Copart (CPRT) make money and what market advantages does it have?
- Copart (CPRT) Metrics
- Copart (CPRT) Acquisitions
- Copart (CPRT) Management
- Competitors: Copart (CPRT) opponents
- What risks does Copart (CPRT) run?
- Copart (CPRT) valuation
- Major news and the last quarter
- Other interesting facts about Copart (CPRT)
〽️Market segment analysis〽️
In this section, I examine the dynamics of the market segment, how it operates, who the main players are, and what tailwinds or headwinds the players in the given market have to deal with. I will not analyze companies in depth, but I will touch on the market share of individual companies.
💡There are quite a few technical terms related to the scrapyard or junkyard market segment, which I will write out separately in English for the sake of clarity, so there may be some oddities in the English translation, but this is necessary since we translate our articles into multiple languages.
Copart (CPRT) is a junkyard company that most people have probably never heard of. The junkyard industry is a sideline of the automotive industry, essentially dealing in used vehicles rather than new ones, either physically or through online channels, these are car auctions.
🚗💥How does the damaged car market work? I will mostly give American examples, but of course they work similarly in other countries. If a car is in an accident and damaged, then with the help of compulsory insurance, the person causing the damage compensates the injured party by involving an insurance company. Depending on the extent of the damage to the car, the insurance company and the owner decide whether it is worth repairing the car or not.
This usually depends on how the repair cost compares to the value the vehicle will represent after the repair. Based on this, we distinguish a few cases:
- improved (repaired): in this case the repair is profitable, but the vehicle suffers a depreciation
- total loss (totaled, salvaged): the car is damaged to such an extent that it is not worth repairing, in which case the car is sent to a scrapyard, where it is either crushed, the undamaged parts are sold off, or it is auctioned off.
- destroyed (destroyed): when the car is completely destroyed and cannot be resold at all.
I will explain the total loss a little bit from the above. In the case of an economic total loss, the insurer pays the residual value of the car, which in this case actually means that the insurer buys the wreck from the owner, so in the USA, ownership passes to the insurer, who has the car transported to a scrapyard and there it is dismantled for parts or sold at auction to the highest bidder for the wreck. In other countries, such as most European countries, ownership remains with the original owner, but since Copart (CPRT) is an American company, for us the American case is the relevant one.
The other case is when the insurance company does not want to bother with repairs or the removal/destruction of the car from traffic, so they hand over the damaged cars to a company that will handle the towing, storage, dismantling or organizing the auction. Such companies include Copart (CPRT), who participate in the transaction as an intermediary, the vehicle does not become their property. Why is it that companies with a market capitalization of several billion USD are interested in the used and wrecked car market? Because countless natural disasters and other damage events occur, for example:
- 🌪️hurricanes and tornadoes (in 2017, Hurricane Harvey alone destroyed 300000 vehicles, but last year there were two hurricanes that damaged 120-130000 cars)
- 🌊tsunami and floods
- 🌋earthquakes
- 🔥fires
- 🚨other natural disasters
- 🚑accidents
- 🛣️Damage incidents resulting from technical faults
When the above events occur, the scrapyard company comes with its tow trucks and neatly collects such vehicles and transports them to its site, for example to eliminate traffic obstacles. The peculiarity of the scrapyard market is that the permits required for a metal processing site are issued very rarely and with great difficulty by local authorities, which is due to the fact that a lot of hazardous waste is generated, there is a lot of noise, all kinds of environmentally harmful liquids have to be handled, and so on.
☝🏻This is so true that Americans have coined a special term for the activity, NIMBY, which stands for Not In My Back Yard, and refers to any activity that significantly disturbs the population or is dangerous.
Such an activity can be not only a scrapyard, but also a chemical plant, a battery factory, and the like, which are not often found in big cities. That is why they try to move such sites as far out of the city as possible, which in turn increases the distance and thus the cost of towing, which the insurance company pays.
Moreover, if the area is rented, the lease contracts must be constantly renewed, and their rent also increases with inflation. In addition to the usual costs, the aforementioned natural disasters, hurricanes, and earthquakes, which are common events in the USA, also represent additional costs. In such cases, insurance companies try to arrange damage control as quickly as possible, meaning that scrapyard companies must free up capacity in terms of drivers, tow trucks, and storage space. However, this requires a significant operating size, as small companies are unable to do this, so only the largest players can do this in the case of more serious insurance companies.
That's why it's worth quantifying the exact size of the market in the American automotive industry:
📊 1. Volume of new and used vehicles
- 🚗Sale of new vehicles: Approximately 11.5 million new light vehicles were registered in 2022.
- 🚙Complete vehicle sales (new + used): average 14.8 million units/year, peaking at 21.7 million units in 2001.
- 🚚Used vehicle market: ~17.6 million sales annually, with a total trade turnover of 350 billion USD.
🏭 2. Manufacturing & factory segment
- US annual vehicle production: approximately 10.6 million vehicles in 2023.
- Car manufacturing revenue: This year, it is estimated at 384.5 billion USD for light vehicles.
🔧 3. Aftermarket
- The US aftermarket, including repairs and parts sales: $516 billion this year.
- This industry is also relevant to a significant portion of scrap parts companies, including Copart (CPRT).
💥 4. Total loss vehicle auctions
- USA online wrecker auction market:
- 2024: USD 3.42 billion according to Morningstar.
- By 2030 it is expected that: ~7.2 billion USD, CAGR ~13.7 % (2025‑2030, Grand View Research)
- Globally: online wrecker auction market: 10.6 billion USD, 27.2 billion USD by the end of the decade (Grand View Research)
- Of this, Copart (CPRT) and IAA (RBA) together hold a roughly 80% share.
🎯 5. List of vehicle types relevant to Copart
- Passenger cars, commercial vehicles: 75-80% of total loss cars come from insurance companies, but Copart only functions as an intermediary, it does not own them, so it does not need capital for this.
- Special categories: Motorcycles, ATVs, jet skis, construction vehicles, all have the potential to be totaled and sold at auction. Copart also has a heavy equipment auction arm since its acquisition of Blue Wave.
🔍 Summary: market size
| Segment | Volume / Value |
|---|---|
| New vehicles (USA) | 11–14 million/year |
| Used vehicle market | 17.6 million sales, $350 billion |
| Production (revenues) | USD 384 billion |
| Aftermarket | USD 516 billion |
| USA salvage auctions (online) | USD 3.4 billion in 2024, USD 7.2 billion by 2030 |
The above gives you a rough idea of the size of the market, but it is likely that the entire used vehicle market is potential wrecked cars, meaning that out of the total market of 350 billion USD, the wrecked car auction market accounts for approximately 3.5 billion USD, or 1%. Added to this is the online used car market, where vehicles now largely change hands electronically, plus the amounts charged for services. And that is just the USA, the international market is even larger. If we consider only the 580 million population of Europe, it is probably at least as large as the USA. Unfortunately, I could not find any summary statistics on the fragmented market. To summarize what was described above: it is a very large, rapidly growing market, where Copart still has plenty of growth potential.
The market growth is also supported by the fact that between 1960 and 2006, the number of registered vehicles increased by 3.7 million units per year, while two years ago it increased by 2 million, and last year by 3 million. Thus, by the end of 2024, there were 289 million vehicles on the US market. The market is growing by about 1% per year, and the number of damaged vehicles is about the same. Since the number of online auctions is growing by 13.7%, their share is also constantly increasing, so this is a very rapidly expanding market. And with more cars on the roads, more vehicles will be damaged during a natural disaster.
Now the only missing piece of information is who the biggest players in this market are:
🔍 Salvage auction and vehicle trading players
| Company | Market type | Main focus | Approximate market share (US/global) |
|---|---|---|---|
| copart | Online salvage vehicle auction | Total loss, insurance vehicles, re-export, demolition | ~50%+ USA, ~40–45% globally |
| IAA / RB Global | Online salvage auction | Total loss, insurance and fleet vehicles | ~30–35% US, ~20–25% globally |
| ACV Auctions, SCA, Raw2k | Online wrecking platforms | Damaged and used vehicles, online sales | USA: ~5–10%, marginal globally |
| autobidmaster, bid.cars, eBay Motors | Online marketplace/aggregator | Miscellaneous: insurance vehicles, commercial vendors | USA: small slice, they also rely on Copart's platform |
As you can see from the table above, the US salvage and damaged car market is essentially duopolistic, with Copart (CPRT) and IAA (RBA) holding 80% of the market, with many smaller players. Manheim is actually a wholesale vehicle auction network, primarily dealing with financing, repairs and exports, while ACV/SCA/Raw2K are only online auction platforms, but they do not have a physical location. The same is true for online marketplaces, while CarMax is a retail used car dealer, without an auction arm. So, there are only two companies operating in the scrapyard and online auction lines: Copart (CPRT) and IAA (RBA).
🙋♂️Copart (CPRT) specialties🙋♂️
In this section, I examine what specialties the analyzed company has, what its position is in the market, and whether it does anything differently than its competitors. If so, what and how, and what impact does this have on their operations.
Copart (CPRT) is a wrecking yard company that:
- Owns 400 junkyards!
- It has 800 tractors, which tow approximately 2.5 million vehicles per year.
- They have their own developed VB3* online auction engine, which they use to process online sales. Since 2003, they have been conducting their activities completely digitally, without physical auctions.
- They also have apps for iOS and Android for the VB3 system, so it's a multiplatform system.
* The VB3 system should be thought of as the European Autoscout24.com or Mobile.de interfaces.
What's worth knowing about the VB3 system is that it's not just a simple website, but is full of all kinds of advanced features, such as:
- ⏺️Copart 360: The 360° vehicle imaging system, which comprehensively shows both the exterior and interior, has been available in the USA since 2020 and in the UK since 2021. Since it is not possible to view vehicles at online auctions, this feature helps buyers to more easily form an idea of the vehicle they are buying.
- ⚙️Bidding system: countless bidding options, pre-bidding, live bidding, following multiple auctions at the same time, etc.
- 📒Title Express: the delivery process and IT management of documents in one.
Users can use Copart's platform for a fee of $99 per year, while the premium package costs $249 per year. Does this sound familiar? Yes, this is how large software companies' cyclical revenue streams, SaaS systems, work, perhaps the best-known example of this is Adobe Inc. (ADBE), which has been operating in this model since 2012.
Based on the above, it appears that Copart (CPRT) actually delivers an integrated solution that includes:
- total loss, insured vehicles
- damaged, repairable cars
- undamaged fleet vehicles
- motorcycles, quads, boats, jet skis
- heavy machinery, trailers, minibuses, flatbed trucks
Copart has owned almost all of its fleet for 40 years, similar to Old Dominion Freight Line and Dino Polska, which we also analyzed (Old Dominon Freight Line (ODFL) Stock Analysis, Dino Polska (WSE:DNP) Stock Analysis). But we could also mention McDonalds (MCD). It is not by chance that I analyze such companies, as they naturally form a moat around their own business. Why? Because these areas cannot be replicated, due to the NIMBY principle, because in order for the authority to issue another permit, a lot of things have to be met, and then you also have to assume that there are areas of the right size, at the right distance, where the scrapyard can be set up or the scrap cars can be transported. In other words, the prerequisites that Copart (CPRT) has developed over decades are almost impossible to reproduce.
✅ Territorial proportions of all owned sites
| Company | Total area of the site (m) | Total area of the site (ha) |
|---|---|---|
| copart (CPRT) | ~19500 (90% own) | ~5915 hectares |
| IAA (RBA) | ~12000 (90% lease) | ~3640 hectares |
Of course, many people may wonder why all companies don't do the same, essentially operating as REITs and buying up the areas? Because renting is easier, more flexible and doesn't tie up as much capital, for example, the IAA works in this model (RBA stock page). This is better in the short term, but worse in the long term.
🧱 Copart Property Structure: Own vs. Lease
- IAA (RBA): It mostly rents its auction sites, allowing it to respond quickly to market demands with less capital tied up. This is a more flexible form, but it is also more vulnerable, as the rent for the necessary plots may increase or the conditions may change suddenly.
- Copart (CPRT): It does the opposite, building sites on its own land, often in areas close to cities. This means a higher initial investment, but a high degree of control, long-term stability, and protection from a changing regulatory environment.
📋 Summary table
| Company | Site real estate structure | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copart (CPRT) | Own property | Stability, long-term plannability, overhead control | High initial capital investment |
| IAA (RBA) | Mostly rental | Less capital expenditure, fast response | Dependence on rental conditions, changing environment |
Copart's model is advantageous in several ways: on the one hand, the rent will not increase, since they own it, and on the other hand, the increase in the value of the sites and the property on them also increases the value of the company. It is also important to note that these sites are located in key positions, meaning that competitors cannot really compete with the company in a given area, because another site either cannot fit in the same place or it would make no sense to open it due to oversaturation. The significant amount spent on scrapyards appears on the accounting side as a CapEx line, but this is not a depreciable cost like a property or a production line, so this will distort the value of the company overall.
The company is also very innovative in terms of IT, Copart was the first to introduce online auctions in 2003, its biggest competitor, IAA, followed suit only in 2019, and these auctions are held in 6 languages. Due to catastrophic events (also known as CAT), they intentionally keep around 10-30% of their storage space free. The point of this is that the revenue from the additional work resulting from sudden events can be reaped by those who have excess capacity. In addition, Copart (CPRT) also owns the most, approximately 400, scrapyards, so they can operate with greater economies of scale than their competitors.
Another important factor is that insurance companies operate with long-term contracts, they do not want to change partners because it is very difficult to replace them, it is time-consuming, so it is a real nightmare to re-sign contracts with another partner.
☝🏻Insurance contracts are naturally very long-term, so it is in the primary interest of wrecker companies to maintain high-quality and fast service and build excellent relationships with partners. It is incredibly difficult to steal an insurance company from a competitor, but if you succeed, it will be a significant blow to the competitor.
The most recent such case occurred two years after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, when IAA (RBA) was unable to meet its contractual obligations to GEICO, so it switched to Copart (CPRT). The number of insurers is relatively small, so revenue from these partners is very concentrated, and the contracts are often exclusive. Below you can see Copart's (CPRT) largest insurance partners, not all of which have been confirmed by the company, but some sources suggest they are. In Copart's case, no single insurer accounts for more than 10% of its revenue, so the company is relatively well diversified in that sense.
📊 Copart Insurance Partners
| Insurance | Partner relationship |
|---|---|
| GEICO | Strategic partner since 2019, an important player in Copart's damage recovery portfolio |
| Allstate | Exclusive auction partner in the USA and Canada since 2010 |
| american family | Joined Copart as a top 2019 insurance partner in 10 |
| Progressive | Regular partner with Copart for handling total loss cars |
| State Farm | Mentioned in Copart collaboration in the loss volume segment |
🌬️ Tailwind: the engines of Copart's growth
🚙 Growing vehicle fleet
The active vehicle fleet in the United States is growing by 2-3 million vehicles per year, resulting in more vehicle replacements, damage, and retirements, providing a stable source of revenue for Copart (CPRT). According to the trends:
- 🚗Used car market: +6.1% annual growth until 2026, in the USA it is roughly 4%.
- 🏍️Motorcycles: +9.1%
- 🛞Scrap metal recycling: +5.5% annual growth through 2031, due to high steel prices and raw material shortages. This also presents logistics and raw material resale opportunities for Copart.
🔌 Technological complexity, more expensive repairs
While a decade ago there were 300 chips in a car, today there are 3000–5000, and electric cars have an average of 2.3x that number. Moreover, today, parts are hardly repaired, practically panels or main units are replaced. This:
- increases repair costs,
- and brings about economic total loss earlier, meaning: more cars are added to Copart's platform.
💥 Security paradox
The safer a car is, the more it crumples to protect the driver, making it more expensive and complex to repair. This also pushes insurers towards total loss.
💸 New car prices skyrocket
Due to the price difference, many buyers are looking for used cars, a significant portion of which is returned to the market through auctions, generating more traffic for Copart (CPRT).
💰How does Copart (CPRT) make money and what market advantages does it have?💰
In this section, we examine what exactly the company does to generate revenue, what products and services it has, how indispensable they are. Does it have any competitive advantage (economic moat), how defensible is it, and whether the trend is decreasing or increasing, and what is likely to happen in the long term.
Copart (CPRT) actually generates its revenue through two activities:
- revenues related to services: 85%, USD 3905 million TTM, up 8.9% year-over-year
- vehicle-related income: 15%, USD 685 million TTM, down 15.2% year-over-year
- two together: USD 4590.9 million LTM, an increase of 8.4% compared to the previous year
📦 1. Service income
This is a key element of Copart's core business model and accounts for more than 80-85% of its total revenue.
What does it contain?
- Auction fees (listing fee, buyer fee, seller fee)
- Storage fees
- Towing fees
- Shipping/logistics fees
- Administrative services: document management, address sorting
- Pre-auction preparation fees
- Affiliated financial services (e.g. payment processing)
- Online platform use, although it is implicit, it is embedded among the other costs
Who pays?
- Primarily insurers, fleet operators, rental companies, law enforcement agencies, etc., who sell their vehicles at Copart (CPRT) auctions.
- Service fees are paid by both sellers and buyers, according to various fee structures.
👉Typically: low capital exposure, scalable and high margin revenue source. If the company's costs increase, this form is disadvantageous, because for example, they cannot pass on inflation to the insurer, but if costs decrease, it is advantageous.
🚗 2. Vehicle sales revenue
This category arises when Copart owns the vehicle itself, meaning it buys it and then resells it.
When does it occur?
- For vehicles that:
- Copart acquired
- The seller of the vehicle is not authorized or able to conduct the sale
- Rarely: seized vehicles being auctioned (e.g. state proceedings)
Why is this part smaller?
- Copart does not operate as a dealer in the classic sense: it does not accumulate inventory as its own property.
- Vehicle sales are typically a lower margin, higher capital risk business.
👉 This revenue category accounts for 10-15% of total sales and appears as a separate line in the financial statements. However, it is a by-product of their main activity, and since it takes up a lot of space and the margin is lower than the previous activity, its initial dynamics should be monitored in the long term.
In practice, the following happens: when a loss event occurs, vehicles or other assets, such as jet skis, quads, boats, etc., can come into the sights of Copart (CPRT) in two ways. The insurer commissions Copart, using a fixed-fee contract, this is the PIP, or Purchase Incentive Program, to collect, store and then sell the vehicles at an auction. In this case, the vehicles do NOT become the property of Copart (CPRT), but the company keeps the agreed-upon service fee.
The other option is for Copart (CPRT) to buy the vehicles and then do with them as it sees fit. Typically, it also sells them, but it can also dismantle them for parts or sell them as scrap metal. The characteristic of this form is that since it fundamentally involves higher costs, Copart (CPRT) cannot pass on, for example, storage costs, so the margin is also lower, but it can freely determine the selling price of the vehicles, so it can increase it depending on supply and demand or current inflation.
Since towing and vehicle recovery are quite territorial, it is worth looking at how Copart (CPRT) is doing abroad, as it is much more difficult to reproduce the same activity there.
🌍 Copart's international presence by country
| Country | Presence type | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 🇨🇦 Canada | Physical yards, full operation | Since 2011, important regional market |
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Copart UK Ltd, 20+ locations | One of the largest markets outside the US |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | Copart Deutschland, yards + logistics | Domestic auction + export (e.g. Eastern Europe) |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | Yards + local language platform | Growing Mediterranean presence |
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | Full service portfolio | With close UK integration |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | Local auction operation | Since 2012, own domain: copart.com.br |
| 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates (UAE) | Export center, logistics hub | Dubai and Abu Dhabi based |
| 🇧🇭 Bahrain | Local partner + logistics gateway | To serve Middle Eastern customers |
| 🇶🇦 Qatar | Local presence | Export and fleet interest |
| 🇴🇲 Oman | Affiliate system | Middle Eastern clientele |
| 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | Export market, online customer access | No physical yard, but serious customer activity |
As you can see, they are present in quite large numbers elsewhere as well, but in the previous image you could see the distribution of revenues according to the latest data:
- 🙏🏻Service revenues: 85%, $3906 million
- 💵US service revenues: 85.3%, 3404 million USD
- 💶International service revenues: 14.7%, USD 502 million
- 🙏🏻Vehicle sales revenue: 15%, $685 million
- 💵US vehicle sales revenue: 59.3%, $399 million
- 💶International service revenues: 41.7%, USD 286 million
- 🙏🏻US vs. International revenue: 82.5%, $3721 million and 17.5%, $788 million
So, international revenue is about 17.5% of total revenue and it's still an open market. Also worth noting is that Copart (CPRT)'s total revenue, and even service revenue, has never fallen in the past 13 years, which is a very good indicator of moats.
💡In contrast, vehicle revenues fluctuate minimally, which suggests that higher-margin, less fluctuating revenues are more "sticky" in nature, while vehicle revenues are more subject to the cyclical effects of vehicle production.
🏰Economic moat🏰
In this segment, I examined whether the company has any economic competitive advantage, which Warren Buffett referred to as an “economic moat,” which keeps competitors from besieging the company’s fortress, or business, and taking over its market. In the case of Copart (CPRT), these could be the following:
- 🫸Cost/scale advantage: clearly yes. This is a relatively capital-intensive business, so storage and transportation are cheaper for the largest players. If a car is stored at a site, the cost of that is made up of transportation, fuel, and other costs. Since Copart (CPRT) is the largest, owning 19500 hectares, compared to the second largest, IAA, which only has 12000 hectares, they have more sites in better locations, so Copart (CPRT) was able to stay in the key positions.
- 🫸Switching cost: yes. Insurers basically sign exclusive, long-term contracts with wrecking companies. The trend shows that Copart (CPRT) is constantly taking business from competitors, and a few years ago GEICO, known mostly for Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, switched sides from IAA because it could not meet GEICO's needs after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. These are very rare events, and it takes many years or decades for such a contract to be terminated. In addition, the insurer uses pilot tests to measure whether the new partner meets the requirements, for example, whether they have enough free capacity, how quickly they transport the wrecks, at what cost, how many free drivers and tow trucks they have, so this is a rather expensive and lengthy process, so it is a particularly sticky industry.
- 🫸Network effect: definitely yes. Since Copart (CPRT) moved its auctions online and expanded its presence in more countries outside the US, especially in Europe, such as the English, German and Spanish markets, more and more buyers have flocked to them, and they are also the ones who bring in customers for insurers. Since insurers have exclusive contracts with scrapyard companies, they only have access to these customers if they are partners of Copart (CPRT). They currently have 1 million customers on the VB3 auction platform (compared to 300-400000 for competitor IAA), most of whom have already bought cars from them. They sell 3 million vehicles a year and currently have around 265000 vehicles waiting to be sold at their auction house. Successful sales and positive reinforcements continuously siphon customers away from competitors, creating a flywheel effect that is good for sellers, buyers, and insurers.
- 🫸Intangible assets, know-how, trademark: partially yes. Copart (CPRT) spends a lot on optimizing and developing its IT systems, as they have developed their own platform called VB3 and have a lot of customer data. Since they have the largest market size, they can best exploit the benefits that come from this.
- 🫸Barriers to entry: definitely yes. You need a government permit and existing sites to carry out the activity. Since Copart (CPRT) owns 90% of the wrecking yards, this is an irreplaceable advantage over its competitors.
💪🏻Copart is a very wide-ranging company with an unreplicable competitive advantage, MorningStar also gave them this rating, which also stems from their continuously increasing private property value. Another characteristic of the duopolistic market is that, apart from the top 2 players, the remaining 20% in the US is incredibly fragmented.
In other countries around the world, the wrecking market operates on a different basis, there is no common legal environment. Copart (CPRT) has already started expanding in larger markets, but since its revenues are mainly derived from the USA, the company is expected to gain even more ground here and its competitive advantage will continue to widen. However, I would not project this onto the EU operation. However, the know-how and the basic logic are the same, so I think they can transfer their operating model to foreign markets in the long term.
🎢Copart (CPRT) metrics🎢
In this section, I examined what metrics characterize the company, how it stands on the revenue side, what margins it operates with, whether it has debt, what the balance sheet shows. I look for items that are extreme – too high debt, high goodwill, etc. - what return on capital the company works with, what its cost of capital is, how the revenue and cost sides are structured. I also examine trends, owner value creation, and how the company uses the cash generated.
Compared to previous analyses, I have introduced a new section to compare the metrics below. Since many people use the US stock market index as a benchmark and also buy S&P 500 ETFs, it is worth looking at what companies are doing in aggregate (you should be happy if the company you are currently analyzing outperforms these values).
S&P 500 2024 data:
- SP&500 revenue growth: +7%
- SP&500 profit growth: +10%
- SP&500 gross margin: 45%
- SP&500 net margin: 13%
- SP&500 ROE: 15%
- S&P 500 ROIC: 12%
- S&P 500 ROCE: 11%
I've already outlined the basic revenue of Copart (CPRT) above, but it's worth taking a moment to reflect on the lessons learned so far. The company's revenue structure consists of two distinct elements: a high-margin, low-cost-of-capital, non-cyclical service component, and a lower-margin, more capital-intensive, more cyclical vehicle sales component.
Although Copart doesn't quite fit my favorite phrase of "a company that is capital-poor but constantly reinvests profits," the capital required to maintain operations is not high. Of course, scrapyards, tow trucks, and other physical assets consume significant amounts of money, so Copart (CPRT) is in no way comparable to, say, a software company. Essentially, the ratio of revenue to capital costs is unchanged. Other expenses, such as selling and administrative expenses, are decreasing, as they were 14.3% a decade ago and only 9.5% last year. This is happening because this is where increasingly efficient operations and the growth of the plant's size are reflected.
Below you can see the margins, which is surprising because their gross profit margin is relatively low due to the high COGS value, yet they are bringing in a lot of money. Even more encouraging is the fact that their margins, albeit slowly, are improving, meaning they are becoming more and more efficient. For those who might not be familiar with these numbers at first glance, this is roughly Microsoft (MSFT) or Google (GOOGL) level, but I could also mention Adobe, which I analyzed: Adobe stock analysis
I left the older image below from the analysis made in 2023, which showed the data for the previous year over one, five and ten years, and unfortunately, I was not able to draw it as nicely with the data analysis software as it is here. All the values of the company are growing slowly and consistently, almost any time period we examine. I would like to draw your attention to the bottom line, which shows the increase in the owner's value, this is primarily due to the purchased land. Based on the logic of accounting, these lands are entered in the book at purchase value, therefore, the numbers are NOT adjusted as the value of the property and land increases. This led to the conclusion that the real value of the lands owned by Copart (CPRT) far exceeds what you can see in the numbers.
It's also telling how forward-thinking Copart (CPRT) is when it comes to finances. They have virtually no debt and are sitting on a huge mountain of cash, so from a financial perspective, they're a great company. Quantifying the data:
- cash or cash equivalents: USD 4300 billion
- long-term debt: 0! USD
- long-term lease: USD 81.3 million
- net debt (negative is good): – 4200 million USD
- Available, unused credit line: USD 1300 million
I was shocked that in 2015 they still had 600 million USD of debt, which they worked down to zero in 2022, and since then they have been full of cash. When the stock is trading at a depressed price, they are willing to buy back shares, but they do this quite opportunistically. In other words, they have not bought back a single share in the past few years, since the stock has almost always been overvalued. This would also be linked to value creation.
🧮What do ROIC and ROCE metrics show?🧮
ROIC – Return on Invested Capital – shows how efficiently the company uses its total invested capital to generate profit. Read more here.
- It shows the company's fundamental value creation capability.
- It filters out the impact of the financing structure.
- If ROIC exceeds the cost of capital (WACC), the company is creating value.
ROCE – Return on Capital Employed – shows how efficiently the company uses its long-term financing sources. Read more here.
- It measures the profitability of business activities.
- It does not take into account tax effects.
- A good basis for comparison between different industry players.
| Indicator | What does it measure? | Who is it useful for? | When is it considered good? |
|---|---|---|---|
| ROCE | Total return on capital | Long-term investors | If higher than the industry average |
| ROIC | Return on invested capital | Equity investors | If higher than WACC |
| ROE | Return on equity | Shareholders | If stable and sustainably high |
From the above, it could be guessed that Copart (CPRT) is very smart in managing its available cash, so these values will also be very high. Copart (CPRT)'s average cost of capital is somewhere around 10.5%, this should be lower than the ROIC value, quantified: 18.5%>10.5%, Copart (CPRT) is creating value. However, the trend is minimally decreasing in the case of ROCE and ROIC, and the shareholder yield fluctuates around zero or minimally negative.
Since these articles also have educational content, let's interpret together what we see in the picture. ROIC and ROCE can actually fall or be distorted if a company generates a lot of cash but doesn't use it. If the company buys land, it shows up on the balance sheet immediately, but the additional revenue generation from the land purchased due to the extra capacity lying idle is only channeled in later. So, the more they invest in such assets, the more it will inevitably degrade the ROIC value, for a while. Many others have realized this, here is an excerpt from the Seeking Winners site that supports the same:
👌🏻Our "All In" ROIC currently includes all cash. However, if we exclude the excess cash Copart doesn't need for operations (they only require 2-5% of revenue in cash), the "All In" ROIC jumps to nearly 30%.
🏡Copart (CPRT) Ownership Value Creation
On the owner value side, I usually look at how the company uses the free cash generated. Basically, a company can do the following things with cash:
- reinvests it back into the business (this is what happens 100% of the time in the case of CPRT)
- reduces debt (the company has no debt)
- pays dividends (CPRT does not pay dividends)
- buys back shares (CPRT buys back shares opportunistically, which is why it has not been doing so recently)
- acquires other companies (CPRT mostly grows organically, sometimes acquires)
Copart (CPRT) can't reinvest any more money into the business because it can easily maintain it, and it can't reduce debt because it doesn't have any. They don't pay dividends, and since their valuation has been high in recent years, it's not worth buying back their shares, the last time this happened was in 2019.
And they don't make transformative acquisitions because there's nothing to buy, they're already the market leaders in the US market by about 50%, IAA (RBA) has been losing ground to them for years, so it's much easier to reserve cash for future real estate investments. And then a little explanation: in the picture above, the return on equity returned to the aforementioned shareholders, or shareholder yield, is minimally negative because it consists of the following:
- debt reduction
- dividend payment
- share buyback (or in this case dilution)
If a company does neither, then this amount must necessarily be zero, with the minimal negative numbers being caused by share dilution. So what will Copart (CPRT) do with all that cash? Here are some ideas:
- deliberately reserves to purchase land for future scrapyards
- can use it for foreign expansion, where there is still plenty of growth potential
- may declare a dividend payment (very unlikely, as it has never paid)
- The company could look for acquisition targets, such as buying other online auction sites. These are high-return, non-capital-intensive services and would fit Copart's (CPRT) profile perfectly.
The answers to the above are provided by management comments:
"The one afterthought I'd offer is that our capitalization with our clients is a distinctive competitive advantage. Our conservative balance sheet, our net cash balance, equips us such that we can be patient even through a crisis. So in the midst of a pandemic, when nobody knew for how long driving an economic activity would be shut down, we were able to continue our business as it stands today. We didn't lay off folks. We didn't suspend CapEx, et cetera.”
"Our insurance clients have a long memory, and they know those things. They know that when land is available for us to acquire, so that we can preserve it for the industry's use for the next 50 years, that we'll do so gladly and proudly, despite it of course coming with big ticket prices as well.” —Jeff Liaw, CEO of Copart, Feb. 22, 2024
The management reserves for crisis situations when some crisis or disaster strikes, because then they have to act quickly. In non-hurricane-prone areas, they keep 80-85% of their land occupied, while in hurricane-prone areas, they keep 70% of their land occupied. This means they have about 30% spare capacity for bulk wreckage transport, and a huge amount of cash to quickly lease additional space.
☝🏻The irony in all of this is that with the revolver framework, they have access to 5.6 billion USD, while their market capitalization is 46 billion USD, which is more than 12% of the company's value❗
Typically, market gains occur during crises and disasters, which is a recurring theme in other well-managed companies as well, see my analysis of Old Dominon Freight Line (ODFL) (Old Dominion Freight Line Stock Analysis). This is because Copart (CPRT) is able to solve problems in a crisis that other companies cannot. I have read in several places that Copart's (CPRT) money management is most similar to Berkshire Hathaway, they sit on a mountain of cash without any problems, which they obviously hold in US government securities or other liquid assets, until a really good opportunity comes along.
💵Copart (CPRT) Acquisitions💵
In this section, I examine how acquisitive the nature of the company is and what impact each acquisition had on the life of the company, if any.
Copart (CPRT) is not known for large acquisitions, but it has acquired smaller competitors in the past, and when entering new markets, it tends to buy local companies or make acquisitions that complement its services. These are never transformative actions, and they usually cost a small amount compared to Copart (CPRT)'s size and financial capabilities:
| Acquisition / Investment | Date | Price / Investment amount | Justification |
|---|---|---|---|
| NER Auction Group | 1995. May | 43.6 million USD | Copart’s processing capacity doubled with the acquisition of 20 new scrapyards in the Midwest |
| National Powersport Auctions (Cycle Express LLC) | June 2017 | ~161 million USD | They have expanded their portfolio to the auction market for powersport vehicles (motorcycles, quads, jet skis); this helps diversify the business. |
| Vincent Auto Solutions | March 2019 | price not public | Copart Adds Total Loss Vehicle Resale Capacity in Western Kentucky Region |
| Strategic investment: Purple Wave, Inc. | 2023. October | ~4.5 million USD | A partnership was established to enter the construction and agricultural machinery auction sector. The goal: new markets, increased transactions, scalability. |
| Palm Beach Purchase (area) | April 2025 | 65 million USD | Expansion of site and storage capacity, operational expansion in Florida to serve growing traffic. |
I would like to highlight one acquisition, and that is the entry into the English market in 2022, when a company called Hill Salvage and Recycling was acquired in England, which was a necessary precursor to breaking into one of the major markets.
📌 Hill Salvage & Recycling acquisition
- Date: The acquisition became official in July 2022, with the Competition Authority (CMA) approving it in July 2023.
- Price: roughly $107 million, but this has not been confirmed in official Copart (CPRT) announcements and industry sources.
🔍 Strategic justification
- Strengthening the market for green components
Hills Motors was branded as “The Green Parts Specialist” and Copart (CPRT) wanted to expand its ESG-compliant, sustainable parts offering, particularly for mixed category (Cat B/S) vehicles. In the UK, vehicles are classified by damage, with “B” being severely damaged and unroadworthy (but many of the parts can be salvaged) and “S” being structurally damaged but repairable. - Supply chain control in the recovery of total loss vehicles
Through the acquisition, Copart (CPRT) was able to enter its full vertical: it buys, dismantles, and resells total loss vehicles, all with its own infrastructure and personnel. - Territorial expansion in the United Kingdom
The Hills locations (Skelmersdale, Glasgow area, Gloucestershire) have effectively complemented Copart's (CPRT) network in key regions of the UK. - Competition Authority (CMA) approval
The CMA conducted a comprehensive investigation because Copart (CPRT) was already the market leader in the UK. Although they had initial concerns, they eventually gave the green light to the deal in July 2023.
In connection with the above news, what caught my attention was that the English competition authority, the CMA, had deemed Copart the market leader, which is why they started the investigation. However, I couldn't find too much actual data on this, so I started looking at the wrecking car service market and the traffic of online car auction sites:
💡According to traffic data from Similarweb, copart.co.uk has 1.6–1.8 million visits per month, while its closest competitor, salvagemarket.co.uk, only reaches around 0.15 million visitors during the same period.
🏁 Main competitors in the UK
In addition to Copart, the most important online vehicle auction and remarketing players are:
- salvagemarket.co.uk
– the “UK’s largest wrecker marketplace” with ~150000 visits per month, a direct competitor to Copart (CPRT). - BCA (British Car Auctions) – bca.co.uk
– with about 440000 monthly visitors in 2nd place, it is one of the most serious competitors, but it is not so much a platform dealing with wrecked cars or totaled cars. - ASM Auto Recycling Ltd. – asm-autos.co.uk
– ~205000 visitors, third strongest player. wrecker platform, direct competitor of Copart (CPRT). - Manheim UK – manheim.co.uk
– approx. 244000 visitors per month, also with a significant market position, but the focus is more on fleet, dealer purchasing, warehousing, logistics, not wrecked cars. - SYNETIQ / IAA UK – synetiq.co.uk / IAA auction platform
– with approx. 328000 visitors, a strong competitor in the market, especially in the field of vehicle dismantling and parts sales (IAA is also a significant competitor to Copart (CPRT) in the USA).
Don't let the page load numbers fool you, out of the 5 companies above, Mannheim and BCA are not direct competitors, only Salvage Market, ASM Auto and SNETIQ are worth considering, but they are also significantly behind Copart's (CPRT) numbers. As you can see, the largest US competitor, IAA (RBA), is present with the help of a local contractor, and Copart (CPRT) also uses this method in some countries in the Middle East, for example.
🧭List of Copart competitors in England
| Site | Salvage auction | Used car auction | New car / dealership |
|---|---|---|---|
| salvagemarket.co.uk | ✅ yes | ❌ no | ❌ no |
| bca.co.uk | ❌ no | ✅ yes | ❌ no |
| asm-autos.co.uk | ✅ yes | ❌ no | ❌ no |
| manheim.co.uk | ❌ no | ✅ yes | ❌ no |
| synetiq.co.uk (IAA UK) | ✅ yes | ❌ no | ❌ no |
🤵Copart (CPRT) Management🤵
In this section, I examine who runs the company and how. What is the bonus system, how much risk – skin in the game – do the managers take on while running the company? Is there a family connection, or perhaps a special “heritage” factor?
If you want to get closer to the Copart (CPRT) philosophy, read Willis Johnson's book (Willis Johnson - Junk to Gold: From Salvage to the Worlds Largest Online Auto Auction), which is also available as an audiobook on Audible. The book is, of course, about Copart and its founders.
I can only speak in superlatives about the management. On the one hand, the founder, the former CEO, a typical American self-made man, Willis Johnson. He is still with the company, but he has already passed the baton to a dedicated CEO, the previous dual executive position has been abolished.
🚀 Leadership team
Jeffrey Liaw – (CEO), since 2017, sole CEO from April 2024
- 💵Annual remuneration (2024): approx. 2.09 million USD (0.9 million USD base salary, ~1.1 million USD annual bonus, ~99000 USD other benefits)
- 〽️Share-based compensation: No new shares were received in 2024; next batch expected in 2026
- 📈Shareholding: approximately 0.017% of the company worth 7.8 million USD
Previously, they used a dual CEO system, the other CEO was Jay Adair, but he resigned and became executive chairman.
Leah C. Stearns – Vice President & (CFO), joined Copart in 2022
- 💵Annual remuneration (2024): approx. 4.3 million USD ($566000 base salary, $453000 annual bonus, $3.28 million stock awards, plus ~$12000 other)
- 〽️Share allocation (2024): significant, this makes up the largest part of the total remuneration, I found 1.3 million USD as previous data
- 📈Shareholding: No specific number is mentioned, but based on the annual allowance, it is a significant position
A. Jayson Adair – Executive Chairman, member of the founding family
- 💵Annual remuneration: $1/year, $845000 in other benefits in 2024, 33 years with the company
- 📈Shareholding: approximately 3.17% of Copart, 30.6 million shares, valued at $1.2 billion
He is William Johnson's son-in-law, that is, his daughter's husband, and has worked with the founder for decades.
Willis J. Johnson – Founder and Honorary President
- 💼Position: Founder, former CEO (1982–2010), currently Chairman, with the company for 43 years
- 💵Reward: their remuneration is not published; lack of information is typical for founders
- 📈Shareholding: ~5.79% of Copart, 55.8 million shares, valued at $2.6 billion
Willis J. Johnson is the founder of Copart (CPRT), the embodiment of the American dream, and the book linked above is about him and his family.
From the above, it can be seen that the management receives RSUs, i.e. restricted stock units, which are nothing more than a promise from the employer that the employee will receive a given number of shares of the company at a later date, after certain conditions are met. It is a fairly typical form of remuneration for American companies. Basically, several conditions must be met:
- ⏳ Time-based restriction: 20% of the shares included in the RSU vest on the first anniversary, and the remaining 80% is distributed over the next four years, in quarterly installments, i.e. the remuneration covers a 5-year period.
- 📈 Performance-driven cap + stock price condition: Copart (CPRT) stock must be at or above 125% of the option price at the time of exercise and for at least 20 consecutive days.
- 🔒 Sales restrictions: In the case of CEO Liaw, the restricted shares cannot be sold or transferred for 10 years, meaning Copart (CPRT) expects a long-term commitment from its executives.
Overall, I think the executives are not overpaid at all for a $50 billion company, and there are enough restrictions built into the contracts that Copart's (CPRT) short-term performance doesn't matter at all, and management members don't even give such a forecast, quite rightly!
The image above shows that there is practically no volume in insider trading, the largest sale was at a price of 65 USD, with a volume of 32 million USD, which is not a small amount, but not outrageously high for a 50 billion company. The price above 60 USD also suggests that even the executives of Copart (CPRT) saw the company as overvalued, which can be considered a good sign considering the price of 47.5 USD at the time of writing. However, option compensation is naturally dilutive for all owners, so the extent of this needs to be looked at. Fortunately, things are in order here, if you want to see horror compensation, look at Veeva Systems (VEEV), Intuit (INTU) or the numbers of Adobe Inc. (ADBE), which I also analyzed (Adobe stock analysis), compared to this, Copart's (CPRT) 0.8% commission is a pittance.
The management's statements convey the point: they are putting everything back into the business to increase their competitive advantage, and if the price is right, they are buying back shares opportunistically, which has not happened since 2019. They have been doing this for over 40 years, and they say it again and again in their reports. They share the risk with the company, their compensation scheme is excellent, and the founder is still a member of the board, meaning he is personally committed to its success. I couldn't wish for better leadership for any company.
Jeff Liaw, CEO, Copart Q1 2025 call
- “[A]s we look forward on a 5-, 10- and 20-year horizon, our baseline expectation continues to be of ongoing organic industry growth as population and vehicle miles traveled trends – plus total loss frequency most importantly of all – more than offset declining accident frequency, as safety technologies penetrates new vehicle shipments and eventually the drivable fleet.” –
- "In comparison to Hurricane Ian, a similarly scaled and located storm from just 2 years ago, our advanced preparation and our team's execution this time around yielded still better results with approximately twice as many vehicles picked up in the first 10 days of these 2024 storms in comparison to Ian in 2022." (note: in 2024, Hurricanes Helene and Milton damaged 138000 and 120000 cars in Florida, respectively)
- “[B]y the end of October, just 3 weeks after landfall for Milton, we had sold approximately 1/4 of all of the assigned vehicles we would ultimately receive from both Helene and Milton. In fact, according to one third-party source, 3 out of every 4 catastrophic units sold in Florida during the month of October were sold on Copart's auction platform, a reflection both of our presence as well as the speed of our execution."
Jeff Liaw, CEO, Copart Q4 2023 call
- "We were prepared to immediately retrieve inventory store process titles for and sell many thousands of vehicles in the affected areas. And of course, our real estate investment and planning had begun years in advance, yielding more than 600 available acres of dedicated cab storage in Florida alone. For a given storm quarter or year, our investments in catastrophic readiness may appear to be overkill, but we recognize the responsibility we have to our customers and to the communities we serve together to optimize our readiness for such severe weather events."
🆚Competitors: Copart (CPRT) opponents🆚
In this section, I examine who the competitors of the analyzed company are, what is their market position, whether they are in a subordinate, secondary or superior role. What is their market share and what is their specialty? Are they losing or gaining market share to their competitors?
Copart (CPRT) has only one competitor in its home market, the US, and that is IAA, so the market is considered a complete duopoly. I have read a lot of misinformation about how much of the salvage auction segment Copart owns, but the truth is somewhere between 45-50%, while IAA may have somewhere between 30-35%, but I have also seen a much steeper ratio of 65/15%, which would effectively be a monopoly. However, I have also read a completely abnormal 4%, which is ridiculously small.
The misunderstanding stems from the fact that many people consider all companies that deal with the sale and purchase of used cars as competitors, but this is a completely false approach. That is why I have compiled a list of the main rules by which Copart (CPRT)'s opponents can be defined:
- interested in the wrecked car market, these wrecks largely come from insurance companies (in the case of Copart this is 70%)
- The company primarily sells wrecks through online auctions.
- its largest partners are insurance companies, which conclude long-term contracts with companies interested in the wrecked car market
Since 20% of the market is very fragmented, and Copart (CPRT) owns 45-50%, you can allocate the rest to IAA, which was acquired by Ritchie Bros in March 2023, who merged IAA into a company called RB Global, so you have to search under the stock identifier RBA. From an analytical point of view, this is a problem because the analytical sites show the metrics of the entire company together, rather than the numbers for IAA and RBA separately. This also means that IAA's metrics are available separately until early 2023, after which you can only conclude what happened to the company.
🆚IAA (Insurance Auto Auctions) – now part of RB Global
- A direct competitor in total loss vehicle auctions, with approximately 30% market share in the US by mid-2024.
- RB Global (Ritchie Bros. + IAA) became a global industry player after the merger with the ~7 billion USD acquisition two years ago
A few thoughts on the $7 billion acquisition: RBA financed the acquisition largely with debt, so it had to go into debt, as it also paid off IAA's debt. The debt ratios in 2022 looked like this:
- Copart (CPRT) debt-to-cash ratio: 0.15 (since zero)
- IAA (RBA) credit/cash ratio: 8.46 (since then this has fallen to 6.6, due to the larger company size)
So IAA was fundamentally at a disadvantage due to its debt, poorer cash generation capacity, and steadily declining market share, as exemplified by GEICO's switch to Copart, and RB Global wanted to reverse these processes with the acquisition. There is no question that the merger with RB Global created a much more capital-strong company, but it is still weaker in every metric than Copart (CPRT):
🧩RB Global vs. Copart comparison chart
| Indicator | RB Global (RBA) | Copart (CPRT) |
|---|---|---|
| Market capitalization | 20 billion USD | 46 billion USD |
| Income | 4.33 billion USD | 4.6 billion USD |
| Gross profit margin | 46.5% | 49.3% |
| Net profit margin | 9.7% ($420 million) | 32.2% ($1420 million) |
| FCF margin | 18.2% | 25.7% |
| Cash balance | 578 million USD | 4300 million USD |
| Net debt | 3.85 billion USD | –USD 4.2 billion (net cash) |
From the above, it can be seen that even with the merger, a company was created that was less than half the size of Copart (CPRT), with an annual net profit margin of one-third that of Copart, while they were up to their necks in debt. Let's assume that RB Global starts investing an incredible amount of cash in developments tomorrow, has an insurance partner, a seller, well-located land, and suitable online auction sites available, so all the conditions are met. Even then:
- would need to spend $8 billion to have the same amount of cash and debt as CPRT (and that doesn't include Copart's drawdown credit line)
- that's 20 years worth of net profit margin, with less efficiency
For those who weren't convinced by this, here are the internal rate of return metrics, which you don't need to look at too much, because the top three belong to Copart, the bottom three belong to RB Global. In short: Copart is miles ahead of its biggest competitor here (again).
Let's look at other industry metrics that I think are also quite telling (CPRT/IAA), based on data from early 2023, when IAA numbers were still available separately:
🧩IAA vs. Copart comparison chart, based on 2023 data, before the acquisition
| Indicator | copart | IAA |
|---|---|---|
| Start of online auctions | 2003 | 2019 |
| Number of online platform customers | 750000 | 300000 |
| Proportion of foreign buyers | 16% | 8% |
| Proportion of non-insurance salespeople | 20% | 8% |
| Revenue split per partner | None above 10% | Top 3 partners approx. 40% |
| Ownership of sites | 90% own/10% rented | 90% rental/10% own property |
| Average site size (vehicle capacity) | 16000 | 9550 |
| Average Auction Selling Price (ASP) | 6000 USD | $5250 (–12.5%) |
| Number of long-term insurance contracts | 35 | 10 |
One more thing I would like to mention is the termination of GEICO insurance. When a damaged car is towed by the companies, the insurance company has to pay for the storage costs, which are 75-300 USD/day/car. After Hurricane Harvey, the IAA did not start collecting and auctioning off the damaged vehicles quickly enough. In this case, they were also the company holding the auction, so this was an additional cost for GEICO, which can be a significant item in an event of the size of a hurricane.
Copart (CPRT) is addressing this problem by redeploying towing capacity and freeing up locations around areas of potential disaster. Importantly, these are complex logistical operations that require a lot of resources, and smaller players simply cannot provide the same service. How do you know when this additional capacity will be needed? Given that hurricane season:
- typically covers the period from June to July and August to October, with the latter having the most and strongest hurricanes
- Affects the East Coast and Southern states such as: California, Louisana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina
Copart (CPRT) is ready with 30% empty capacity in these states if any major event occurs, RB Global cannot say this about itself. This means that Copart's service quality is also higher than that of its competitors.
🌍Non-US competitors
Although 82.5% of revenue comes from the US market, let's not forget the remaining 17.5% earned in the international market. The key markets are as follows:
- England: the UK accounts for the majority of international revenue
- Germany: Copart Deutschalnd Gmbh. has a revenue of approximately 66.5 million USD (not significant compared to the company as a whole)
- Other markets: Spain, Canada, Brazil, Ireland, UAE, Finland, Oman, Bahrain, of which Brazil is the most significant, but this is not significant yet, accounting for about 10% of international revenues.
It is difficult to analyze competitors in these markets because the EU market is extremely fragmented and the regulatory environment is very different. This is especially true for the German market, where the regulations are very strict, making it much more difficult to implement Copart's (CPRT) proven solutions in the US and UK.
‼️To be honest, I find it disheartening that Copart (CPRT) barely publishes data on the non-US segment, so I can't practically compare their own foreign activities with their competitors. However, compared to five years ago, their revenue increased from 232.4 million USD to 502 million USD, which is more than double, so this is a particularly dynamic market and Copart (CPRT) has done something very well here.
⚡What are the risks of Copart (CPRT)?⚡
In this section, I examine all the risks that could affect the company's long-term future. Currency, regulatory, market disruption, and so on.
I have read a lot of analysis on Copart (CPRT) that listed a number of general risks, but I do not consider them significant. Copart's business is not really cyclical, but of course an economic recession could curb the expansion of the auto market, there may be regulatory risks, insurers may turn away from them, although the revenue concentration is below 10%, but these are overly general statements. However, I found some rather specific, almost disruptive risks that I think are worth listing.
🤖 The future of autonomous vehicles
The biggest fear is perhaps the emergence of self-driving vehicles, because if they drive completely autonomously, or if we think about it further, they will move in swarms like drones, then there will actually be very few accidents or at least their number will decrease drastically. This will also reduce the number of wrecked cars by an order of magnitude.
To understand why this will not happen in the near future, let's examine together what the creation of wrecked cars depends on now:
- 🚗Increase in the number of vehicles: There are 289 million vehicles on the road in the US, including recreational vehicles and heavy machinery. The number of vehicles increases by 2-3 million per year, and the more there are, the greater the chance of accidents.
- 🚚TVM: is the amount of driving per capita. The higher this value, the more accidents occur in proportion to it.
- 🚔Car complexity: The more complex a car is, the more expensive it is to repair, which means that the number of cars that are considered total losses increases, which is expressed as total loss frequency. This value has quadrupled since 1990, but this is not only because there are more cars, but also because repair costs are higher and therefore cars are not worth repairing, so they are written off as total losses. The higher the resale value of a car, the more Copart (CPRT) receives from it
- 🛟Number of safety devices: In theory, countless safety devices such as ABS, ESP, adaptive cruise control and self-driving reduce the number of accidents and make driving safer.
I would like to elaborate on the above a little. The increase in the number of safety devices does indeed make driving safer, but they do not serve to protect the car, but the passenger. This also means that new cars have much more crumple zones, they break more easily than 20-30 years ago, since they have to absorb the energy of the collision somehow. Because of this, even a minor crash results in MUCH more expensive repair costs than before. Think about how much it costs to repair a simple heated, electric mirror compared to how much it cost 20-30 years ago to repair one that only had a glass panel. Some BMWs have their entire fronts stolen in Europe because they have sensors, radar and other stuff worth 10000 USD! built in, all of which can be damaged in a minor collision. Replacing a lamp on the front can cost several thousand USD if damaged. So the damage amounts are not lower, but much higher. In this respect, electric cars that are simpler and have fewer parts are no exception.
As for self-driving, I saw an amazing example of how technological advances trickle down on Andvari Associates' Substack channel (Copart 2025 Q1 update). If we look at ESP, the electronic stability program that helps prevent vehicles from skidding and losing control, Toyota invented it in 1983, and its second generation was released in 1995 and began to be implemented in vehicles. Where is ESP now in terms of the spread of new cars? The safety function was included in all new cars by 2021, meaning 26! years have passed since the introduction of the second generation, as you can see in the picture above.
In the following picture you can see that with ESP now being mandatory in all new cars, what proportion does this mean for all vehicles, roughly 70%. In other words, it will be another 15-20 years before it will be in every car on the road. So in 2040-45, it is expected that ESP will be in almost every vehicle, except for veterans.
Let's now apply the above to level 3 self-driving, in relation to which forecasts say that last year there were about 20000 operating L3 self-driving cars in operation and by the end of this year their number may increase by 100000-150000 units, this is 0.5% of new car sales. In fact, I have not found clear forecasts for the spread, but even optimistic estimates do not say more than 10% within five years and this is not yet fully autonomous, level 5, but only level 3 self-driving.
🛞Based on the ESP trend, it will be another 30-40 years before self-driving truly becomes widespread and has an impact on Copart's wrecker volumes.
Of course, we have to assume that they don't build hardware into cars that would otherwise be able to handle such a complex task, and that they don't update the systems online. Given that the automotive industry is one of the biggest cost-saving machines, and people are often unwilling to pay thousands of USD for these solutions, it won't spread easily.
🌪️ Natural disasters and weather
While natural disasters are the primary cause of wrecked cars, these events typically result in losses for companies like Copart (CPRT). Why:
- 🌪️Hurricanes, floods, and fires can affect sites because they can also destroy Copart assets
- 🌀They endanger vehicle fleets and infrastructure
- 🌊Insurance claims may increase after flooding, distorting volumes
In connection with the above, it should be known that damage recovery and towing, especially at a fast pace, are very expensive for wrecking companies and obviously temporarily disrupt business, even if the insurance company later covers these costs or part of them. In this case, a lot of things with high capital costs have to be done. However, in the long run, the higher quality of service, the fast response and the good relationship with the insurance companies will still pay off. Assuming, of course, that Copart (CPRT) can actually do its job, because hurricanes spare no one and pose the same danger to the company's vehicles and assets as to the population.
🔌 Technological risks, cyberattacks
Cyberattacks are a hot topic these days, but I see this as a very real threat, as Copart (CPRT) is increasingly moving into the virtual space, like most companies. Since Copart (CPRT) has been selling cars almost exclusively through online auctions since 2003, a prolonged service outage could cut off the company from its lucrative revenue stream, which could result in a significant loss of revenue. And in the field of valuation, AI could be the game changer. In other words, the risks are roughly as follows:
- 🖥️Platform outage (e.g. VB3), loss of revenue
- 💿Cyber attacks, data theft, DDoS threats
- 💾Obsolete technology, competitors can adapt better (e.g. AI-based valuation)
However, as I have written in other analyses, I think the players who will most appropriately adopt achievements such as artificial intelligence are those who deal with it all day long and have sufficient capital to pay for IT developments, and I think Copart (CPRT) is the ultimate example of this. As for cybersecurity companies, there are some very decent American companies, such as Fortinet (FTNT), which can solve these problems.
🧮 Software-based electric cars – repairability and new interpretations
As driving changes and electric cars become more popular, the nature of failures may also change. For example, more vehicles may be damaged or totaled due to software issues, or if cars also switch to monthly service-based operation, which we call SaaS in the software industry, then the number of inoperable cases may increase, but it will not be possible to remedy it with physical repairs. Some cases that may come into question:
- 🪫Electric cars (Tesla, Rivian) often end up in total loss status due to software bugs, but these can often be fixed with remote updates
- 🧑🏻💻In the future, the concept of a “wreck” may change, the car may be “fixed” with a firmware update
- 🤕If insurers start recalibrating the definition of total loss, it could lead to a decrease in volume
- 🔏Who will have the data? Car manufacturers may not release it
I can easily imagine that car manufacturers will not release these types of software bug fixes at all, and in fact, Copart (CPRT) will not even know what the exact problem is with the car. Of course, this also provides an opportunity to build a new economic moat, if, for example, Copart (CPRT) enters into an exclusive contract with the manufacturers, based on which they receive the data. So this is a fairly flexible issue and I can't really do more than speculate at this point.
🛃 Export dependence and regulatory risks
In principle, there is also regulatory risk, but the chance of licenses being revoked in the USA is almost zero, but this is not true for international expansion, where there is also a slight currency risk. Let's start with the first:
- Fragmented European market, regulatory obstruction
- Export ban, sanctions or customs duties on wrecked cars and parts
- logistical disruptions in transportation
Although Copart (CPRT) generates a smaller portion of its revenue from activities outside the US, this is a large, significant and rapidly expanding area. However, the European Union does not have uniform regulations for wrecked cars, as it does in the US, so Copart has to deal with 27 member states one by one, and the same is true for South America and the Middle East. Although this has worked relatively smoothly so far, I have read in relation to Germany that the legal framework is so unfriendly that the expansion process has barely made any progress in recent years. Of course, based on Copart (CPRT)'s activities so far, the company will be able to solve this, unless, for example, companies impose reciprocal duties on used and wrecked cars and their parts due to tariff wars.
The other is currency risk, as the more countries Copart (CPRT) collects its revenues from, the more currencies they will have exposure to, which they will either have to hedge against or simply suffer the disadvantages/benefits of exchange rate fluctuations. For example, Philip Morris (PM) has been successfully handling this for decades, so I don't see this as an insurmountable task either.
After the possible risks, here comes the usual self-check list, which confirms my thesis about the company:
- I made a self-check list that confirms the thesis about the company:
- low or zero debt: YES/PARTLY/NO
- significant economic advantage that can be protected in the long term: YES/PARTLY/NO
- excellent management: YES/PARTLY/NO
- excellent indicators, significant owner value creation: YES/PARTLY/NO
- The majority of the total return comes from reinvesting the cash generated, not from dividends: YES/PARTLY/NO
- appropriate share valuation: YES/PART/NOT
Copart's (CPRT) economic moat is one of, if not the strongest, I've ever seen, virtually unreplicable. The company is clearly the market leader based on its size and market share, but it's not big enough to not have 10-20 years of growth ahead of it. Since their role is hard to replace, I don't really see how Copart (CPRT) could be pushed out of the market.
There are uncertainties that can modify margins, but virtually every impact is either favorable to Copart or offset by another impact, so the net result is neutral. Other risks fall more into the category of speculation and may appear in the distant future, say a decade, but I would be very happy to see that far ahead for all my other investments. A boring company, with solid foundations and metrics, that's exactly what I like, I simply don't see any significant risk in this investment.
👛Copart (CPRT) Valuation👛
In this section, I will examine the company's current valuation compared to historical values and consensus fair values.
Rating metrics
In the two rows below you can see valuation metrics. The first row shows the current valuation, the second row shows the historical valuation. Although I don't think these metrics are particularly good - they hide a lot - they can be used as a benchmark.
- Share price (2025-07-12) 47.46 USD; P/E: 31.22; EV/EBITDA: 22.68; P/FCF: 39.24 (Based on Finchat.io)
- Historical median valuation (10-year average): P/E: 32; EV/EBITDA: 22.34; P/FCF: 50.66 (Based on Gurufocus)
Why don't you see a DCF model in this segment? Because each input data produces a huge variance in the output, and most of the data is an estimated value. Therefore, the valuation will never actually be a single exact number, but rather a range can be defined where the current valuation falls.
You should apply a margin of safety to this price range, according to your risk appetite.
So don't expect an exact price, no one can say this for a stock. However, there are fair value prediction services, almost every major stock screening site has one, I've aggregated them below. However, if you want a good stock support service, subscribe to The Falcon Method (The Falcon Method), entry prices are given for the stocks analyzed there.
Rating
- Wall street estimates: 23.02-47.06=35 USD (I took into account the average of the two extreme values of Alphaspread)
- Peter Lynch Median P/E: $39.71
- Morningstar: $57 (4 stars)
- Gurufocus: $55.56
- AlphaSpread: $30.28 (36% overvalued compared to base case)
- SimplyWallst: 61.53 USD (22.9% undervalued)
- Valueinvesting.io: 24.18 USD
Based on the average of 7 values: 43.3 USD (Copart (CPRT) stock is overvalued by 9%)
How should you interpret the numbers? The above “margin of safety” rule should be applied according to your conviction, so if you really believe in the company, you can even buy the company at fair value. I took out the usual calculation that you can find in other stock analyses (iO Charts stock analyses), since Copart (CPRT) is trading above its fair value, but I would like to add a few things to the above.
One is that the prices range between 23.02 USD and 61.53 USD, which is a 267% difference! In other words, the range that the sites define is incredibly wide. The reason for this is that most analyses only take into account quantitative things, for example, not the quality of the company, which is a pretty important factor when choosing a stock. The other is that Copart (CPRT) is never cheap precisely because of its extra quality, the picture above is a pretty good indicator of this, as you can see from the valuation in the Morningstar analysis, it is very rarely cheap. I have been following the stock for practically 5 years, and it always seemed too expensive to buy.
But this is quite a typical characteristic of very high-quality companies, such as Mastercard (MA), Visa (V) or Microsoft (MSFT), which, when purchased at a high valuation and looking back a few years later, the company no longer seems so expensive based on the share price at that time. BUT Copart (CPRT) is not cheap at all right now, it is roughly around its valuation average, meaning it cost exactly that much before.
🌗Significant news and the last quarter🌗
In this section, I will examine what happened in the last quarter, whether there were any significant news/events. If the company reports semi-annually, we examined this period.
The market reacted to Copart's latest quarterly results with a 12% drop, which is not really justified by anything.
📊 Financial performance
- 🌍 Revenues: USD 1.21 billion, +7.5% year-over-year (USD 84.5 million increase compared to the same quarter last year)
- 📈 Gross profit: USD 552.3 million, +5.1%
- 💰 Net profit: USD 406.6 million (+6.4%), earnings per share (EPS): USD 0.42 (+7.7% increase compared to the same quarter last year)
This is a completely average quarter, although it can be considered below average compared to previous years, but there is nothing terrible about it.
🚚 Operational structure & volume
- Unit sales: Stagnation in the US, +6% in non-US markets
- Service revenues: +9.3%, while vehicle sales -2.1% (revenue growth came mainly from services)
From Copart's (CPRT) perspective, it is beneficial if service revenues increase, because this allows for higher margins and lower capital expenditure.
🌪️ Weather & Site Policy
- Disaster preparations: two new land acquisitions in California and a second 400-acre tract in Florida to prepare for hurricane season
- Operating costs: site expenses +12%, approximately $500 million will be spent on site acquisition and development, of which $6 million is extra cost as a result of previous hurricanes
I would add that in 2024 there were quite a few hurricanes in the USA compared to 2023, namely Helene, Beryl, Francine, Milton and Debby, the strongest of which was the category four Helen, which caused 78.7 billion USD in damage and damaged 138000 cars. By the end of the season, the storms had destroyed about 300000 vehicles. This is a bad year, but not an extreme one. The 2025 hurricane season, however, is still largely ahead of the company, but with global warming this situation is likely to worsen.
⚠️ Market risks & volume trend
- Total loss frequency: 22.8%, up 1 percentage point year-over-year, driven by rising repair costs and parts prices. This is a record and suggests that new cars are becoming more expensive to repair due to their complexity, which is a plus for Copart (CPRT).
- On the one hand, this will increase the volume of new wrecked cars, but on the other hand, higher costs may reduce profitability if more vehicles have to be transported. The important question is why a car became a total loss and what parts of it can be salvaged.
🚛Ritchie Bros gained space?
It’s interesting to see what spooked investors and ultimately led to the stock price crash. It’s likely that Copart (CPRT) reported a +2% year-over-year increase in global salvage truck sales, while claims in the US fell 1%. In comparison, RBA reported a 7% increase over the same period, and stated that “we gained market share globally in the salvage segment in the first quarter.”
This is countered by the fact that Copart's car sales prices increased by 2%, while RBA's fell by 3%, so the fact that they are selling more but cheaper cars alone seems to me to be a less efficient operation and a business with lower margins. I think this is exactly the kind of news that a long-term investor doesn't need to react to, except to follow both companies and read their reports.
A thousand and one things can affect the stock price, starting with the daily announced tariffs of varying rates that are imposed on parts, which in turn greatly affect the cost of repairs. According to the latest news, Donald J. Trump wants to impose a 30% tax on the European Union and Mexico, where many cars are made, which will naturally upset prices.
The following financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025 are announced: 2025.09.11.
✨Other interesting facts about Copart (CPRT)✨
Everything that was left out of the previous ones, or if there is any special KPI - key performance indicator - or concept that needs to be explained, is included here.
I mentioned that Copart (CPRT) stock always trades at a premium, making it difficult for a value investor to buy the stock. However, everyone can take comfort in the knowledge that the company has far outperformed both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ in terms of price appreciation over the past five years. Of course, this could be an anomaly, so I looked at how the stock has performed since its 1994 IPO: 17.6% CAGR per year, which represents an increase of 4651%. I think everyone would be happy about this for the next 31 years.
Some more interesting industry abbreviations worth knowing:
- TLR (total loss rate): the ratio of reported accidents to cars that became economic or total losses.
- ACV (actual cash value): what the car was worth before the accident, minus depreciation.
- VMT (vehicle miles traveled): the number of miles traveled per person in a given year.
- Salvage value: the vehicle value after the accident.
- Repair cost: the expected cost of the repair.
- Total loss frequency: The total car damage rate, which is determined by how complex a car is and how difficult and expensive it is to repair, has quadrupled since 1990. This year in America, it's already 22.8%!, which is extremely high.
- ASP (average selling price): The average selling price of the cars. The higher it is, the better for Copart because their profit margin increases, meaning they get a higher amount, and the percentage amount will also be higher.
- CAT (catastrophic events): A CAT unit is the amount of damage or destruction caused by an event, such as a hurricane.
- PIP (Purchase Incentive Program): is a package of services offered by Copart (CPRT) to insurers for a fixed fee, but the insurer retains ownership of the car. PIP includes towing, storage, and auctioning. PIP offers a higher profit margin than if Copart were to take ownership of the car, but since the price of the package is fixed, the company bears the additional burden of variable costs, such as the impact of inflation. Therefore, in a high inflation environment, the company is better off selling its own cars.
- Manheim Used Car Index: the average price of used cars. If it is high, volume decreases because they are worth fixing, if it is low, the inventory available for auction increases. It is not clear what is ideal for Copart, in fact neither is so bad. You can access the index here..
🔑Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)🔑
- Ratio of US and foreign revenues: On paper, the wrecking market outside the US is growing faster, so it is worth monitoring the relative revenue of the two segments. Within the category, I would also monitor the volume of totaled cars, the average selling price and the number of miles driven, as this may indicate a trend reversal. It is also important to see what is happening in the larger European markets, such as England, Germany and Spain, and Brazil is also a huge market, all of which have significant growth potential, and are worth taking a look at each separately.
- Revenues from service and vehicle sales: The ratio of the two is important, the former being the less capital-intensive, higher-margin revenue leg. However, in a high inflation environment, the company has to absorb the higher costs associated with service revenues, so it is worth increasing the number of vehicle sales in such cases, because Copart (CPRT) can then pass on this additional cost to customers:
- Capital deployed: I always get an Amazon (AMZN) feel when I look at Copart (CPRT)’s deployed capital, as both companies like to jump ahead of their competitors in infrastructure investments and expand capacity. This is a welcome behavior, but it’s worth following where the company is deploying its capital, as it could also indicate a strengthening of its competitive advantage.
Copart (CPRT) Summary
Summary of the analysis, drawing lessons.
Copart (CPRT) is one of the best quality companies I've ever analyzed, with a surprisingly strong economic moat and long-term growth potential. It's not really cyclical, I can mention few risks related to its operation, it's a leading company in its own market, it has practically only one competitor, which operates much less efficiently. What does this mean? That the stock is practically always very expensive, trading at a price higher than its real value, and this is the case now, even though it fell roughly 17% this year.
But, this should not surprise anyone who follows several similarly good quality companies. Either a severe crisis has to come for the valuation to fall, or you have to be brave and make a purchase despite the high valuation. But, since this is not investment advice❗, you have to decide for yourself whether this price is right or not. I have been watching Copart (CPRT) from afar for years, and I am not sure that this situation will change now.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Which broker should I choose to buy shares?
There are several aspects to consider when choosing a broker - we will write a complete article about this - but I would like to highlight a few that are worth considering:
- size, reliability: The bigger a broker, the safer it is. Those with a banking background – Erste, K&H, Charles Schwab, etc. – are even better, and well-known brokers are typically more reliable.
- expenditures: Brokers operate with various costs, such as the account management fee, the portfolio fee - which is the worst cost -, the purchase/sale fee and the currency exchange cost (if USD is not deposited in the brokerage account)
- Availability of instruments: It doesn't matter which broker has which market available, or whether they add the given instrument upon request and how quickly.
- account type: cash or margin account, the latter can only be used for options. For Hungarian tax residents, having a TBSZ account is important, but citizens of other countries also have special options – such as the American 401K retirement savings account – which are either supported by the broker or not.
- surface: is one of the most underrated aspects, and it can be a real pain. Anyone who had an account with Random Capital, a now-defunct Hungarian broker, knows what it's like to work on a platform left over from the 90s. Erste's system is lousy slow, Interactive Brokers requires a flight test, and LightYear believes in simple but modern solutions.
Based on the above, I recommend the Interactive Brokers account because:
- the world's largest broker with a strong background
- a few million instruments are available on it, and shares listed on multiple markets – e.g. both the original and the ADR – of a single share are often available
- Interactive Brokers a discount broker, they have the lowest prices on the market
- you can link your Wise account to them, from which you can quickly transfer money
- Morningstar's analyses are available for free under the fundamental explorer (good for analysis)
- EVA framework data is available under fundamental explorer (useful for analysis)
- they have both cash and margin accounts, Hungarian citizens can open a TBSZ
- you can use three types of interfaces: there is a web and PC client and a phone application
What data sources did you use to analyze stocks?
For quantitative analysis, we primarily use various stock screening sites, and for qualitative analysis, we use company reports and other analyses, such as the Substack channel, podcasts - Business Breakdowns - and similar sources.
What matters: value or quality?
The answer is both, but quality is more important. It is much better to buy a very high-quality company at a fair price than to buy shares of a cheap but poor-quality company.
What is the best time frame to buy shares?
The minimum is 5 years, but you should consider the time horizon from 10 years to infinity. Our approach is typical "buy and hold", the emphasis is on selection, then we try to hold the shares for as long as possible, which requires conviction. We rarely sell, mainly if we feel that the thesis we set up has been broken or if we have made a mistake.
Which is better: individual stocks or ETFs?
There is no truth to this question. It is very easy to track the market with an S&P 500 ETF, and it is worth doing for beginners, because it can be done with a little knowledge and practice. Analyzing individual stocks requires 30-50 hours per company, so we do not recommend it to those who do not like it.
Do you hold the shares in a TBSZ account?
Why don't you specify a specific purchase price for the shares in your analyses?
We do not set purchase prices for several reasons: firstly, because it is impossible to calculate the exact value of a company. Secondly, because we cannot give investment advice, these analyses are only made to support the decisions of others. That is why we use fair value estimates from other services, as well as a certain margin of safety. Ultimately, your conviction will decide how much a company is worth to you.
Which stock price will rise or fall?
Nobody knows, because there is no magic bullet that can tell. It can be based on mathematical probabilities. The prices of high-quality companies that have growing sales, are able to reinvest the cash generated into the business, and have high intrinsic value creation tend to rise in the long term. But in the short term – a few years – the market and the price can move anywhere.
Legal and liability statement (aka. disclaimer): My articles contain personal opinions, I write them solely for my own entertainment and that of my readers. The articles published here do NOT in any way exhaust the scope of investment advice. I have never intended, do not intend, and am unlikely to provide such in the future. What is written here is for informational purposes only and should NOT be construed as an offer. The expression of opinion is NOT in any way considered a guarantee to sell or buy financial instruments. You are SOLELY responsible for the decisions you make, and no one else, including me, assumes the risk.
