Advance Auto Parts (AAP) Competitors

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

Do analysts prefer AAP or LAD?

Advance Auto Parts currently has a consensus target price of $45.13, indicating a potential upside of 40.09%. Lithia Motors has a consensus target price of $365.91, indicating a potential upside of 24.95%. Given Advance Auto Parts' higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Advance Auto Parts is more favorable than Lithia Motors.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Advance Auto Parts	1 Sell rating(s)	15 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Lithia Motors	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.64

Do insiders and institutionals believe in AAP or LAD?

88.8% of Advance Auto Parts shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Advance Auto Parts shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Lithia Motors shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, AAP or LAD?

Lithia Motors has higher revenue and earnings than Advance Auto Parts. Advance Auto Parts is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lithia Motors, 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
Advance Auto Parts	$9.09B	0.21	$29.74M	-$5.60	-5.75
Lithia Motors	$36.19B	0.21	$802M	$29.68	9.87

Is AAP or LAD a better dividend stock?

Advance Auto Parts pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Lithia Motors pays an annual dividend of $2.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Advance Auto Parts pays out -17.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Lithia Motors pays out 7.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Lithia Motors has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years. Advance Auto Parts is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the media favor AAP or LAD?

In the previous week, Advance Auto Parts had 1 more articles in the media than Lithia Motors. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Advance Auto Parts and 10 mentions for Lithia Motors. Lithia Motors' average media sentiment score of 1.70 beat Advance Auto Parts' score of 0.93 indicating that Lithia Motors is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Advance Auto Parts	6 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Lithia Motors	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, AAP or LAD?

Advance Auto Parts has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lithia Motors has a beta of 1.61, indicating that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is AAP or LAD more profitable?

Lithia Motors has a net margin of 2.21% compared to Advance Auto Parts' net margin of 0.41%. Lithia Motors' return on equity of 12.43% beat Advance Auto Parts' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Advance Auto Parts	0.41%	1.82%	0.38%
Lithia Motors	2.21%	12.43%	3.53%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in AAP or LAD?

Advance Auto Parts received 414 more outperform votes than Lithia Motors when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.36% of users gave Lithia Motors an outperform vote while only 62.57% of users gave Advance Auto Parts an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Advance Auto Parts	Outperform Votes 911 62.57%	Underperform Votes 545 37.43%
Lithia Motors	Outperform Votes 497 66.36%	Underperform Votes 252 33.64%

Summary

Lithia Motors beats Advance Auto Parts on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.