FAIRFIELD, Calif. -

The bread and butter of Copart’s business remains in the salvage part of the wholesale market, but the company continues to make strides in non-insurance and whole-car sectors as evident by what leadership shared Wednesday.

While sharing financial data from the second quarter of its fiscal year, Copart indicated its non-insurance volume in North America grew by 8.1 percent, driven primarily by supply from franchised and independent dealers, as well as individual consigners.

The company said its non-insurance volume — which includes dealer activity, as well as relationships with such as Consolidated Asset Recovery Systems to remarket repossessed vehicles — represented 19.8 percent of total North American volume.

Copart also reported that its North American insurance volume grew by 6 percent, gains driven by market wins and severe weather experienced last summer.

All told, the company said its second-quarter unit volume moved 7.1 percent higher year-over-year, while on a same-store sales basis, unit volume increased by 5.2 percent.

Copart chief executive officer Jay Adair hinted during a conference call with Wall Street analysts that the company is gearing up to gain more non-insurance volume because of what it’s assigning for future capital expenditures.

Adair said Copart has more than “12 facilities in the pipeline that will be opening or expanding in the next year” because of “market share gains and increased volume associated with non-insurance gains.”

Copart 2Q Financial Statement

As the company closed the second quarter of its 2012 fiscal year on Jan. 31, Copart indicated its revenue, operating income and net income totaled $227.9 million, $63.5 million and $40.6 million, respectively.

Executives calculated the figures represent increases in revenue of $20.5 million or 9.9 percent, in operating income of $3.3 million or 5.6 percent and in net income of $2.7 million or 7.2 percent, respectively, from the same quarter last year.

They also noted fully diluted earnings per share for the three months were 62 cents, compared to 46 cents last year, an increase of 34.8 percent.

For the six months that ended Jan. 31, Copart determined its revenue, operating income and net income were $453.5 million, $128.9 million and $81.8 million, respectively. The sums represented increases in revenue of $33.5 million or 8.0 percent, in operating income of $9.1 million or 7.6 percent and in net income of $6.0 million or 8.0 percent, respectively, from the same period last year.

The company pointed out its fully diluted earnings per share for the six-month span were $1.23, compared to 91 cents last year, a rise of 35.2 percent.

Elsewhere during second-quarter financial activity, Copart highlighted that it recorded an impairment of $8.8 million associated with the write down to fair market value of certain assets, primarily real estate, computer hardware and its fleet of private aircraft which have been removed from operations and, if not disposed of during the quarter, are reflected in assets held for sale on the balance sheet.
 
The company determined the commercial airline services offered at its new headquarters in Dallas are sufficient to allow for the disposal of its fleet of private aircraft. This impairment reduced diluted earnings per share by 9 cents.

“We’ve had an aviation department for well more than a decade. Being a California company, it’s almost imperative when you’re running a business that has so many locations across the country,” Adair told investment analysts during a conference call.

“Having an aviation department was all about being efficient so you weren’t spending a lot of time at airports. Being in Dallas changes all of that,” he continued about a relocation expected to be completed by the end of the company’s current fiscal year.

“It now allows us to be a couple of hours away from the majority of the country, whether it be New York, Chicago or Miami,” Adair went on to say. “There are flights in and out of Dallas on a regular basis. So the ability to jump on a plane and head to a market and be able to come back is not only efficient but can be done in a day or two as opposed to being out all week.”

Also of note on its second quarter financial report, Copart repurchased 1,970,456 shares of its common stock at a weighted average price of $46.34 per share under its share repurchase program.

Since the beginning of our fiscal 2011, the company has repurchased 21,894,759 shares of its common stock at a weighted average price of $39.75 per share.

At the end of the quarter, Copart had 25,506,609 shares available for repurchase under its share repurchase program.

Update on International Interests

During the call, analysts asked Adair not only about Copart’s significant business in the United Kingdom, but whether or not the company would establish salvage yards in other countries.

“The U.K. is doing fantastic,” Adair emphasized. "We’ve got all of our locations fully integrated. We’ve continued to see growth in that market. We’re continuing to see high (average selling prices), as well as high unit volume. Our team there has done a fantastic job.

And when touching on the potential of venturing into emerging markets, Adair added, “That could happen as early as this fiscal year. It will definitely happen in fiscal 2013. That’s definitely something we’ll be pushing hard on. How much growth will we see? That remains to be seen, but Copart hasn’t been shy in the fact that we’re going to have an international expansion.”