Copart, Inc. Price & Performance (CPRT)

Those levers include, for example, our artificial intelligence enabled image recognition tools, which can empower insurance companies to total cars more accurately and more effectively as well as our vertical extension into new service offerings such as title We've also talked about our response to major catastrophic events including hurricanes, Helane and Milton from last year. And we of course have discussed as well our expansion the expansion of our business with sellers beyond the insurance industry. To include financial institutions rental car fleets, corporate fleets among others. We would encourage you to revisit those prior calls for deep dives on those subjects I would summarize today by saying that those big picture trends continue. First, we continue to grow our insurance volume our auction liquidity and the returns we're generating for our sellers. Our insurance carriers, Beach Passing Day, are entrusting us with more of the workflow that they once handled in house both day to day and in storm events as well. As one very visible example, now that we are processing well over 1,000,000 titles per year, via our Title Express platform no carrier who has started with Copart has taken it back in house. Also continue to grow our volume with our non insurance sellers benefiting of course from the flywheel effect of our auctions.

And finally, we continue to invest proudly and aggressively in our business in the form of technology, real estate, and people. To fuel our future growth. Wanted to provide a few brief comments on our insurance business specifically. Before turning it over to Lia to review the financial results and to take a few of your questions. First on our insurance business, our global volume grew 8% for the quarter in comparison to the same quarter last year. A little over half of this was attributable to the catastrophic events of the second half of last year. As has been true since the dawn of our industry, we continue to experience increases in total loss frequency of course, with the singular exception of the blip from 2021 to 2022, when ACVs or pre accident values increased more than they ever had previously Parts history. For the fourth quarter in The United States, total loss frequency hit 23.8% an all time high Though a portion of that is attributable to those storm events, in the 22.2% represents an all time annual high And the total loss frequency drivers certainly continue unabated. Labor costs increase, repair parts cost increase and rental car rates do as well.

While totaling vehicles becomes more attractive. Given liquidity of our auctions demand for our vehicles by international buyers and the salvage returns we're able to generate for our sellers. A couple of inquiries we've received in recent days that I thought might be worth addressing today. First is the question about whether insurance coverage in [indiscernible] has changed. And I would note that over the past two years, the insurance industry has generally achieved rate relief through state regulatory bodies and consumers have certainly felt those changes in the form of higher rates for their auto policies. This has caused a modest increase in the uninsured population relative to pre COVID levels certainly. Over many years, we've observed this to be a cyclical trend meaning the uninsured motorist rates tends to go up and down over the years. Over the years. And given where we sit right now, it likely is a modest it represents a modest [indiscernible] the growth in our insurance business. The second topic I wanted to address briefly is the question of what potential tariffs mean for our business And I'll take a U. S. Centric view first to addressing this question. It's frankly similar to an inquiry that we get from time to time about whether high used car prices or low used car prices are better for our business.

The reality is that we're somewhat ambivalent And in this case, the bottom line of a potential tariff oriented approach would be that it's largely neutral to our business. Though with a complex tapestry of offsetting forces, some of which we'll briefly touch on today. As you know, in general, the effects of tariffs are largely in for each of the factors that in turn affect our business with a corresponding downstream effects, on our unit volume our selling prices Here are a few such examples. Inbound tariffs in isolation would increase the cost of repair parts for vehicles which all else equal would increase total loss frequency and drive increased volume to Copart Copart. Inbound tariffs, however, would also increase pre accident values or actual cash values to use the American parlance, which in isolation would increase the cost of total losses insurance carriers reducing total loss frequency and suppressing volume to Copart. But those inbound tariffs would also increase the selling prices for the vehicles that we sell at auction for the very same reason yet again driving total loss frequency improving our unit economics as well. The story stopped there, I'd characterize the effect of tariffs as being modestly positive to Copart.

The great unknown however is what inbound tariffs for shipments to The United States whether those tariffs could precipitate retaliatory tariffs from the same countries against whom we are imposing them. On its face, those tariffs might appear to suppress selling price for our vehicles at auction. However, for the automotive industries, the countries that would face the most substantial tariff burdens such as Germany, Japan, Mexico and Canada, are generally not the providers of critical high value Those nations are typically in Eastern Europe, The Middle East and Africa has been true now for many years. Economic outcomes for our sellers and for Copart at our auctions are largely driven by the cars that we are selling as repairable drivable cars not as parts to be harvested nor as metal to be scrapped. The countries who are hungriest for these types of cars generally do not have substantial domestic auto manufacturing capabilities and as such are not likely to be subject to significant automotive tariffs against which to retaliate in the first place. That's a bit of a long winded answer, but in sum, I think we believe that tariffs would have a likely neutral to positive on our business and we faced enough such inquiries that I thought it was worth exploring in greater detail.

We concluded our quarter and are pleased with the results and I'll hand the [indiscernible] Lia to describe those Thank you, Jeff. I'll begin with our second quarter sales trends. During the quarter, our global unit sales increased 8% and inventory decreased nearly 3% from a year ago period. Growth in units sold was about 8%.

Reflects fee unit growth of nearly 8% and purchase unit growth of 29%. Our U. S. Insurance unit volume increased about 9% year over year or approximately 2% when you Non insurance unit volume increases continue to outpace our insurance volume growth Excluding cat BlueCar, which services our bank, rents and fleet cuts year over year growth of over 27% Dealer sales volume consisting of Copart dealer services and our national power Copart [indiscernible] Was flat year over year with MPA increasing over 14% and CDS declining about five Low value units including charities, and municipalities, declined just over 4% as we continue to focus on higher margin per unit business line. On a final note, our partner in the equipment space Purple Wave has driven 8% GTV growth year over year for the trailing twelve months ended January 31, While we are observing the industry wide trend of sellers taking a cautious wait and see approach due to uncertainties in the broader macro environment, Purple Wave's overall GTV continues to significantly outpace the industry from a growth perspective. Overall inventory levels in The U. S. Decreased about 4% and by about 5% when excluding low value and cat units.

Turning to our international business, Growth in units sold was over 8% in the quarter, [indiscernible] International fee units increased 11% and purchase units decreased Our international business ended the quarter with inventory levels 2% ahead of the prior year period. Global ASPs increased by approximately 2% for the quarter, relative to the year ago. Our U. S. Insurance ASPs increased by nearly 2% over the same period Our international ASPs decreased by less than 1% and international insurance ASPs [indiscernible] 3% Turning to our financial performance. Global revenue in the quarter increased 14% to nearly 1,200,000,000.0 Global service revenue increased nearly $130,000,000 or 15% the second quarter due to increased volume and higher revenue per unit. U. S. Service revenue grew by nearly 15% for the quarter, and 8% when excluding cat units. And international service revenue grew by about 17%. Global purchased vehicle sales for the second quarter increased While global purchased vehicle gross profit increased 110% In The U. S, about 32,000,000 or 43% We while purchase vehicle gross profit increased over 9,000,000 or about 205% in the quarter. Internationally, purchased vehicle revenue decreased over 18,000,000 or 22%. And gross profit increased by more than 3,000,000 or about 48% in the second quarter.

As a reminder, the reduction in international purchase vehicle revenue accompanied by an increase in gross margin.

Continues to be driven by higher ASP insurance vehicles in Germany, which have transitioned from a purchase contract to a consignment model. As well as stronger purchase unit margins Global facility related costs which includes facility operations, depreciation and amortization, and stock based compensation, increased $81,000,000 or about 20%.

In The U. S, facility related costs increased $75,000,000 or nearly 22% During the quarter, we recognized $27,000,000 of incremental costs associated with the hurricanes, Helene and Milton. [indiscernible] This reflects the recognition of expenses associated with CAT units sold during the period. There remains over $5,000,000 in costs which are incurred and are currently capitalized on our balance sheet. Which will be recognized as the remaining cat units are sold Excluding the costs associated with the hurricane, facility related costs per unit increased about 12% from the prior year period. This increase in per unit costs reflect our ongoing investments and expanded operational capacity to support our continued growth. International facility related costs were up almost $6,000,000 which is an increase of nearly 9% or less than 1% on a gross on a per unit basis. During the quarter, global gross profit was approximately 526 an increase of over $61,000,000 or about 13%. And our gross margin percentage was 45% in the quarter. In The U. S, our gross profit was approximately $463,000,000 an increase of about 11% and gross margin was about 48%. For the quarter. Our international gross profit was approximately 62,000,000 an increase of about 32% and gross margin was about 3033% in the quarter.

Second quarter GAAP operating income increased about 12% to over $426,000,000 which reflects the growth in gross profit and our general and administrative expenditures of 99,000,000 which are up about $15,000,000 over the prior year. And finally, second quarter GAAP net income increased 19% to over $387,000,000 or $0.4 per diluted common share. During the quarter, we benefited from an increase of nearly $7,000,000 of interest as we have actively invested our cash into treasury securities. And for the quarter, our tax rate was approximately 17%. Turning to our capital structure. As of the end of liquidity which is comprised of nearly $3,800,000,000 in cash and our capacity of over $1,200,000,000 With that, Jeff and I would be happy to take some questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. It may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. And our first question comes from the line of Bob Labick with CJS Securities. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking our questions. Hey Bob. Hey.

So I want to start on the salvage side, you guys have advanced the industry for decades by serving your customers' needs.

Points of friction in the total loss process for the insurance customers you serve now and what and how are you working to solve those? Sure. That's a great question. Bob. I'd say the critical points of friction some of which we can help with directly, others of which are these for now and not yet in our hands. We'd start from the moment of the accident So from the moment of the accident forward, in particular in The United States, the direction of that initial tow often happens without the insurance company's knowledge. So costs are incurred The cars are often towed to an impound facility, for example, where storage charges accumulate until the insurance carrier is even aware of the accident first place. So first notice of losses, a critical milestone in the claims process that the insurance carriers manage. Once they're aware, we certainly can begin to assist them with a faster assessment of the total loss. The faster we can help them make that decision and that requires upstream integration into their business processes into an aspect of claims that we had historically not been as plugged into. But the earlier we can assist them with that decision, the more we can arrest those advanced charges in the first place.

So that remains a key point of friction in the industry more broadly. We have a number of initiatives with a number of carriers underway already. To help them make that decision more quickly. At the other end of the spectrum, I think it was probably a couple of calls ago, we talked at great length about the Title Express platform or title procurement function that we now perform on behalf of insurance companies. That is likewise a large administrative burden for anyone especially when there are liens outstanding on a total loss claim that requires interacting with lenders And if you study the space, you're aware that the fragmentation of U. S. Lender base is vast going from the big money center banks front end, the obvious Bank of America, Citibank's, JPMorgan, and so forth, all the way to the very smallest regional credit unions, most of which you haven't heard of, It requires sophistication on the part of an institution like us to absorb that burden, especially as we're beginning to see an uptick in underwater loans in the first place. So that's an area where we have now heard me mention during the call, [indiscernible] well over 1,000,000 cars a year and counting and growing And I'd say the carriers who have signed up for that service those are a couple of points of friction.

There's certainly others bought, but we're excited to help them with those two critical touch points in the claims process. Okay, great. I appreciate that color. And then one on the non salvage, the whole car side. You just give us a sense of where you are in your sales force build out to grow and your market share in the light damaged non salvage cars how big of an opportunity is that segment for Copart Copart? Yes. That's a fair question, Bob. I think the question you posed and the answer frankly is a dynamic one. And as we and the interplay of total loss frequency and the vehicles that we sell for for sellers beyond insurance companies [indiscernible] At total loss frequency, rises and the cars we sell increasingly are almost not recognizable as totals. In some cases, you could not tell by the naked eye that the car had even been in an accident. The universe of buyers for those vehicles begins to very heavily resemble the buyers of cars at traditional auto auctions, wholesale auto auctions. So that trend continues in our favor. So the liquidity pool that Copart provides just organically extends into that space more and more.

Broadly speaking, as you are sure are well aware, auction intermediated market is in north of 15,000,000 cars a year.

Some of those cars for sale for $30,000 $40,000 plus Those aren't yet our sweet spot. But as for the cars that are in the insurance zone, so to speak, we are talking many, many, many cars. We should be in the early innings of our experience we have invested in the sales force as you know, Bob. Our aspiration is to invest far more over the years to come. Both as our capabilities grow the auction liquidity continues to move in that direction and we've become still more credible provider of those services to sellers in that next question comes from the line of Chris Bottiglieri with BNP Paribas. Please proceed. Yes. Thanks for taking the question.

Said two today. I guess the first one was on currency. I think you've had a number of years and have asked this, but could you just remind us kind of how a strong USD like how it plays throughout your business? Does it impact the fees buyers pay? Does impact ASTs like historically you've seen periods of strong seller it's been a number of years, but what would the impact be from your perspective?

Yes. I think we are in broad strokes, Chris, I'd say we're more short of dollar than we are long. A strong U. S. Dollar makes assets in The U. S. More expensive for those outside U. S. Borders to purchase. So it can at extremes, a super strong U. S. Dollar could suppress selling prices for vehicles at Copart auctions. That said, I'd say over the years currency fluctuations tend not to be universal or unanimous. Invariably, there are some countries with stronger currencies relative to the dollar at any moment in time. [indiscernible] as a result, Ben, our our reach, our footprint, so to speak, in terms of the countries to which our auctions reach to be diversified enough that even as some countries suffer in the form of weaker currencies relative to the dollar, others step into the fold. And certainly domestic buyers would be advantaged in that instance as well. So with an organic enough supply, it's an organic enough demand curve, so to speak, that we haven't seen meaningful blips in many years. So whatever headlines we read about, the Mexican peso, the Canadian dollar and elsewhere we wouldn't per se see it in the day to day selling prices and Copart auctions because our risk is sufficiently diversified.

Got you. Okay. That makes sense. I kind of wanted to delve into the title a little bit more. It sounds like you've progressed well access to that $1,000,000 now.

You sell roughly 4,000,000 units in North America today.

What can you tell us like are insurers moving all of the units that could sign with you? Are they giving you like a sample at first and then to what extent can you push this product out to even units you don't service like ones your competitors do for example? And then lastly, what kind of knock on effects are you seeing? Are you seeing them kind of engage with you with other services or Are they thinking like I guess making life easier for them, one of the ways is helping your business. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] Portion of your question, I think the knock on effects that are most valuable to both us and to our insurance company clients is that we generally reduce cycle times for those vehicles. Because we are performing this function at scale across 50 states with the many thousands of lenders and the established pattern, so to speak, as to when to call and how many titles you can negotiate with a given lender you finally get through on hold. Or those we negotiate and participate actively in our portal and so forth. Right? So there is a natural benefit of the scale that we have built on that side of the business which ultimately manifests itself in moving the cars more quickly generally speaking generates higher returns.

And of course, makes better use of our storage capacity as well. I think it is critical point of trust with our insurance carriers as you noted. If you if an insurance company entrust Copart to navigate policyholder interactions at the moment of a pretty intense claim, right by its nature, total loss claim is a more serious [indiscernible] crack or what have you. That insurance companies have entrusted us with that pivotal moment. I think it's signed that, yes, they will the total loss decision tools that I mentioned at the outset. Among other such services. And we're delighted to do it because I think we have the scale and the expertise and the interest a fantastic job I think you posed the question as to how progression naturally works. And yes, it tends to start with a pilot for a given state. Given subset of states. And then migrates its way to the entire company or all of their total loss claims and barring any folks that are in a trial period now, I'd say virtually every Title Express client has virtually every title been procured by us. It doesn't make sense to try to segment them in some way to keep X states in transfer Y states.

It tends to be all or nothing.

Got you. That makes a lot of sense. The next question comes from the line of Craig Kennison with Baird.

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Wanted to focus on Purple Wave, if I could. And maybe you could just help us understand your geographic expansion plans and whether it's important that you expand in geographically adjacent markets so you can leverage network effects that you've built up locally? I have few follow ups.

Hi, Craig. Thanks for the question. There are two components to our expansion of the Percociloye sales force. One is densification of sales professionals in the existing territories that Purple Wave was operating in prior to our investment. And the second is to identify the markets where the highest volume of transactions occur and identify seasoned professionals to join the team to help expedite expedite our ability to win share in those markets. So it's really been a two pronged approach that we've taken and it served us well. We're seeing that we're able to basically densify our sales force in some of our in some of Purple Wave's legacy market more share in those markets.

And Craig to their credit, Aaron, Susan McKee and the team have built a a strong auction virtual auction business for the heavy equipment space. So they have by and large not relied on physical stores. So even as we expand into new geographic adjacencies, the investment is largely people and systems oriented as opposed to large storage facilities or large physical infrastructure.

And maybe you can help me, Jeff, understand the network effect in your buyer base. How [indiscernible] often do does equipment leave the local market and find its way around the world?

For Purple Wave, it definitely does. The The equipment is often expensive up to or high value enough, so to speak, to justify transporting it to other places and the attendees that are out of the town or out of the state are certainly substantial. And I think this is probably as you probably already know this, Greg, But even in Copart's core business, because we serve insurance companies, even before the Purple Wave investment, the Purple Wave partnership. We were already a very significant purveyor of heavy equipment in the construction space, agricultural, etcetera, almost as incidentally so because insurance carriers often have policies that cover these types of assets as well. So we are experiencing, we are leveraging the benefits in both directions and we'll do so the future as well. In terms of the crossover buyers that would be interested who are participants of Copart would be interested in Purple Wave and vice versa. Thanks. And just one more.

Think, Leah, you mentioned that you do target veteran or seasoned professionals in that industry. I know you've said in the past you've doubled the headcount or the territory manager headcount I'm sure it takes time to ramp, but is 8% GTV growth consistent with I guess increasing your sales force by that much?

I would just say that there is a ramp up period and that I would say doubling of the sales force has only recently occurred. So I think of really the first two to three months is being coming in, getting trained, getting the the full playbook for the Purple Wave platform. And then they begin to build up their book of business and their future visibility into their pipeline. And so yes, I think we're pleased [indiscernible] where that new cohort is performing. And would expect to see further growth from them come in over the next Great. Thank you.

As a reminder, And the next question comes from the line of Brett Jordan Jefferies.

Hey, good evening guys. Hey, Brett. On the CDS Copart year over year, I guess was there abnormal spike in the prior year or is it just tougher to get that volume since it's such sort of a one off acquisition at the dealer level?

I'd say the CDS volume we've seen be more volatile I think the overall wholesale market is expected to be flat year on year. And so we've seen months where we've been well ahead of prior year and we've seen months where we've just been behind. So I think it's been all in. A bit weaker than we had expected, but net net team continues to focus on adding additional accounts And that we're able to build out that base within our dealer business to have a strong platform to grow from. Okay. And then a follow-up. On Germany, you mentioned its transition mostly to consignment. Could you talk about the German growth specifically within international? And as it goes to consignment, does that allow it to accelerate faster just because it's more efficient to get the unit Brett, I was going to add just one afterthought on your CDF inquiry as well. I think it's fair to say that CDS businesses by its nature not as entirely durable as insurance businesses, but I wouldn't describe it as transactional either. Meaning, we build deep and lasting relationships with the sellers participate at Copart and we certainly have to engage with them on a regular basis to continue that flow of vehicles.

But I wouldn't describe it as a It's a kind of business that if you just turn away for a day, it go away either. I don't think I would characterize it that way. For your second question about Germany, I wouldn't I wouldn't describe the consignment versus purchase approach as per se the bottleneck in in our penetration of growth in Germany. That remains those things we've tackled, I think, on prior discussions with [indiscernible] About the historical practices in Germany, some regulatory matters. I think it's Frank more happens culture in historical practices than it is in the regulatory burdens. But because that the total loss market has emerged very differently in Germany, we have to over overcome that institutional inertia. We have overcome the habits of both the claims team well as the marketing team legal teams, the tax teams, there's just inertia to overcome So the consignment question is it's a helpful fact for us. It's a better aligns our interest with the insurance companies. We've talked about that in the past too. That we always prefer to sell on a consignment basis because it means the insurance carrier and we are rooting for the same outcome as opposed to the very naturally adversarial relationship when we buy cars from them And we are in turn now rooting for the highest possible price that we sell the vehicle and they're rooting for the lowest possible price because they want to make sure that they hadn't foregone value to belong So it's a good fact, but it's not per se the enabler in isolation.

Okay. Can I work in a half a question follow-up to Craig's On Purple Wave, is there an export market for that equipment or is it too large to logistically sell to the buyers who would be buying transportation from you in Africa or Eastern Europe? There can be less so today than there is at Copart. Meaningfully less so. But the equipment for the same reason is value. We have had some cross border movement from Europe, Canada I wouldn't say the answer is no, but not yet to same degree that the Copart auctions [indiscernible] Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Kash Patwala with JPMorgan.

Hi, good evening and thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to start off with a question on the trends in service and purchase vehicles gross profit margin. You had called out a favorable environment in U. K. As a driver of the transitory uplift in purchase margins But it looks like in Q2, it was another strong quarter. For purchased vehicle gross margins. Could you talk about the trend you're seeing in the market is this primarily a function of market dynamics or has there been an increase in focus by the company to better capitalize on any market inefficiencies? Thanks and I have a follow-up.

Sure. The specific trend in terms of purchase vehicle gross margin is attributable one primarily to the the transition of a top customer in Germany to consignment model, but also Just contract structure for certain sellers in The UK. That were previously using more of a purchase contract They're also they've also moved to a consignment model. And then in addition to that, there is some benefit from a margin per perspective purely on vehicles that we purchase and sell through the auction from consumers. So it's a combination of factors. It's not just one.

Think in the broadest through the broadest lens, I would view vehicles that Copart sells on a purchase basis There's the consumer business, which you know about. That's our cash for cars platform. Because we aren't yet a meaningful household name [indiscernible] business is a more straightforward way of selling cars and we have consumers. We take all the risk. We buy the cars from them. Virtually every other corner of Copart Copart which we are buying and selling cars, I would view that as a transitional step over time for consignment model. It is proving to [indiscernible] That we generate returns, we'll be happy to share those results them to show them that we're in fact making money on the cars. Let's together migrate to consignment models we can sit on the same side of the table Understood. That's super helpful. Just as a follow-up, could you talk about the drivers of sequential downtick and G and A spend despite seasonally higher revenue? Would it be reasonable to view the Q2 run rate as a normalized run rate going forward or are there any material investments in the pipeline as we go to 2025.

Yes. The G and A question is a good one. And I think we'll say the same thing in quarters that are heavier quarters that are light. I think you we should all look at multiple quarters of historical results to from which to assess any meaningful trends. We manage our costs very thoughtfully. We want to invest in the business. To grow it. I wouldn't read into any given quarter. And that goes for CapEx and G and A and so forth. We're not managing for the smoothness for our earnings. We managed to grow the enterprise profitably for the benefit of our customers and our shareholders long term. So the quarterly blips, there's some seasonality in the business and [indiscernible] yard expenses, there's some variability in G and A for projects or what have you. [indiscernible] undertaken no efforts to smooth and whatsoever persuade they are what they are. Look to multiple quarters to draw in Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached the end of the question and answer session. I'd like to turn the call back to Jeff Liao for closing remarks.

Great. Thanks everybody for joining us and we'll talk to you next Enjoy the rest of your day.