MeritValue

COPART INC

CPRTdata completeness 88%17 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

COPART INC earns about 28% on invested capital, far above its ~9% cost of capital, with a roughly flat share count — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $13.12 and $61.51 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$2.69B1$3.5B2$3.87B3$4.24B3$4.65B3
Net income$936.5M4$1.09B5$1.24B6$1.36B6$1.55B6
Operating cash flow$990.9M7$1.18B8$1.36B9$1.47B9$1.8B9
Capital expenditure$463M10$337.4M11$516.6M12$511M12$569M12
Free cash flow (derived)$527.9M7$839.2M8$847.6M9$961.6M9$1.23B9
Total debt$400M13$014$11M14——
Cash & equivalents$1.05B15$1.38B16$957.4M16$1.51B16$2.78B16
Diluted shares961.2M964.6M966.6M974.8M977.6M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$93.98
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$15.88
Free cash flow it threw off
$12.59
Debt you’d be carrying
—

10 shares is a claim on $93.98 of net worth that earned you $15.88 and generated $12.59 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
28% avg · 5y
FY21 32%FY22 33%FY23 26%FY24 23%FY25 24%

It earned about 28% on invested capital, year after year, against a ~9% cost of capital — the footprint of real pricing power. Competition usually drags returns like this back down; here it hasn't.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+2% shares · 5y

Share count is roughly flat over 5 years — little dilution, little buyback. Total debt has fallen 97% — deleveraging.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $13.12 and $61.51 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$61.51
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$961.6M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$34.91
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$961.6M
Earnings Power Value
$13.12
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$1.24B
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$18.34
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years20.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $34.91
The three cases
Bear0.0%$16.9
Base20.0%$34.91
Bull20.0%$34.91

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 20.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-07-31 · accession 0000900075-23-000034 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-07-31 · accession 0000900075-24-000024 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-07-31 · accession 0001628280-25-042946 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-07-31 · accession 0000900075-23-000034 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-07-31 · accession 0000900075-24-000024 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-07-31 · accession 0001628280-25-042946 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-07-31 · accession 0000900075-23-000034 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-07-31 · accession 0000900075-24-000024 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-07-31 · accession 0001628280-25-042946 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-07-31 · accession 0000900075-23-000034 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-07-31 · accession 0000900075-24-000024 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-07-31 · accession 0001628280-25-042946 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-07-31 · accession 0000900075-21-000022 (LongTermDebt)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-07-31 · accession 0000900075-23-000034 (LongTermDebt)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2021-07-31 · accession 0000900075-24-000024 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2022-07-31 · accession 0001628280-25-042946 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)