Advance Auto Parts (AAP) Competitors

AutoNation (NYSE:AN) and Advance Auto Parts (NYSE:AAP) are both mid-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, media sentiment, community ranking, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Which has more volatility and risk, AN or AAP?

AutoNation has a beta of 1.32, indicating that its share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Advance Auto Parts has a beta of 1.27, indicating that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to AN or AAP?

In the previous week, Advance Auto Parts had 27 more articles in the media than AutoNation. MarketBeat recorded 41 mentions for Advance Auto Parts and 14 mentions for AutoNation. AutoNation's average media sentiment score of 0.57 beat Advance Auto Parts' score of 0.34 indicating that AutoNation is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AutoNation	6 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Advance Auto Parts	8 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do analysts recommend AN or AAP?

AutoNation presently has a consensus target price of $204.71, indicating a potential upside of 19.62%. Advance Auto Parts has a consensus target price of $46.69, indicating a potential upside of 31.72%. Given Advance Auto Parts' higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Advance Auto Parts is more favorable than AutoNation.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AutoNation	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.57
Advance Auto Parts	1 Sell rating(s)	15 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Do institutionals & insiders believe in AN or AAP?

94.6% of AutoNation shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.8% of Advance Auto Parts shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of AutoNation shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Advance Auto Parts shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AN or AAP?

Advance Auto Parts received 526 more outperform votes than AutoNation when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.61% of users gave Advance Auto Parts an outperform vote while only 56.04% of users gave AutoNation an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
AutoNation	Outperform Votes 385 56.04%	Underperform Votes 302 43.96%
Advance Auto Parts	Outperform Votes 911 62.61%	Underperform Votes 544 37.39%

Is AN or AAP more profitable?

AutoNation has a net margin of 2.59% compared to Advance Auto Parts' net margin of 0.41%. AutoNation's return on equity of 30.48% beat Advance Auto Parts' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AutoNation	2.59%	30.48%	5.62%
Advance Auto Parts	0.41%	1.82%	0.38%

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, AN or AAP?

AutoNation has higher revenue and earnings than Advance Auto Parts. Advance Auto Parts is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AutoNation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AutoNation	$26.77B	0.25	$692.20M	$16.94	10.10
Advance Auto Parts	$9.09B	0.23	$29.74M	-$5.60	-6.33

Summary

AutoNation beats Advance Auto Parts on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.