Where Did Copart Fall Behind Cintas?
For questions about this article or underlying research, email help@trefis.com.
Two companies in the same industry charted very different paths over the five years to November 2026. One stock rose 117.9%, and the other fell 16.0%. The stock that rose is Cintas (CTAS), and the one that fell is Copart (CPRT). So what made the difference: faster sales, bigger profits, or investors paying more for each dollar of profit?
Who Has Beaten Copart Over Five Years?
Copart’s stock has trailed most of its industry. Over the five years to November 2026, the company outperformed only 8 of the 32 Diversified Support Services companies compared.
Six companies in that industry posted sales growth within 4 points of Copart’s over the last three years, and their stocks beat Copart’s by a wide margin. Cintas is one of them, finishing 133.8 points ahead of Copart over five years. Here is how Copart compares with Cintas and with Openlane (OPLN), another of the six:
| Company | Sales growth, 3-year average | P/E | 1-year | 3-year | 5-year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copart (CPRT) | 6.5% | 20.4x | -23.9% | -29.0% | -16.0% |
| Cintas (CTAS) | 8.7% | 44.5x | 25.6% | 81.4% | 117.9% |
| Openlane (OPLN) | 9.4% | n/a | 38.4% | 149.7% | 161.6% |
Total return to 2026-11-04, including dividends. Companies in Diversified Support Services whose sales grew within 4 points of CPRT’s. P/E: latest close over the last four quarters’ earnings per share.
Openlane runs a digital marketplace for used vehicles and finished 177.6 points ahead of Copart. However, Openlane reported a loss per share in the twelve months to September 2021 and to September 2026, leaving it with no P/E to set beside Copart’s.
Did Cintas Grow Faster Than Copart?
Cintas grew slightly faster over the last three years. Its sales increased by 8.7% a year on average, against 6.5% for Copart. Cintas rents and services uniforms for businesses and also provides first aid and safety services. It also has a pending deal to buy UniFirst, a workwear company, which the Federal Trade Commission is reviewing.
Copart posted stronger sales growth over a five-year timeline. Its sales climbed 73.3% between 2021 and 2026, compared with 59.1% for Cintas. The gap between the two stocks therefore did not come from faster sales at Cintas.
Where Did The Gap Come From?
Part of the difference came from profit per share. Between 2021 and 2026, earnings per share at Cintas rose 91.9%, against 59.4% for Copart.
Cintas widened its operating margin by 3.9 points over those years, while Copart’s narrowed by 6.8 points. Copart now keeps less of each sales dollar as operating profit than it did in 2021, and Cintas keeps more.
The remaining gap came from what investors pay. On September 30, 2021, about five weeks before the five-year return period begins, the market paid about 35 times earnings for either stock. Today, investors pay 20.4 times for Copart and 44.5 times for Cintas. Because the 2021 multiples predate the start of the return period, earnings growth and the change in multiple do not multiply out exactly to each stock’s return. Both factors mattered, and what investors pay mattered more: Copart grew its profit per share, yet its stock fell.
Copart runs online vehicle auctions and is currently spending on new services. It also completed its purchase of ACV, a digital car marketplace, for about $1.9 billion on October 16, 2026. Management said on the September 10, 2026 call that the fall in gross profit in fiscal Q4 2026 mainly reflected the cost of investing in new products and services. These included long haul delivery, TitleExpress and dedicated wholesale facilities in the U.S.
What To Watch In Copart’s Next Report
During the same call, management said Copart’s operating costs per car rose 12.7% in fiscal Q4 2026 from a year earlier. They noted that the company fully expects its cost per car to go down, and added that it does not give guidance on earnings.
Copart’s operating margin stood at 32.0% in fiscal Q4 2026, against 36.7% a year earlier. That figure is the metric to watch in its next quarterly report, expected in November 2026.
How To Act On CPRT?
Not necessarily on Copart alone, if your goal is long-term wealth. Wealth is built by owning the companies that keep outperforming, the leaders of their industries, wherever they are. Here are two companies from Copart’s own industry that have beaten it. Over the five years to November 2026, Cintas stock rose 117.9% and Openlane stock rose 162%, while Copart stock fell 16.0%.
Finding companies like these takes comparison across industries and sectors, and that is what the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio does. It holds 30 quality companies in equal weight and, since its inception in September 2020, has returned more than 105%, ahead of a benchmark that combines the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap and Russell 2000. See how we find the leaders.
Spot an error or want more like this? Tell us in 10 seconds.