AutoNation (AN) Competitors

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

Does the media prefer AN or KMX?

In the previous week, AutoNation and AutoNation both had 19 articles in the media. CarMax's average media sentiment score of 1.14 beat AutoNation's score of 0.77 indicating that CarMax is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AutoNation	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
CarMax	12 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do institutionals and insiders believe in AN or KMX?

94.6% of AutoNation shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of AutoNation shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of CarMax shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, AN or KMX?

AutoNation has a beta of 1.25, meaning that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CarMax has a beta of 1.72, meaning that its stock price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate AN or KMX?

AutoNation presently has a consensus price target of $204.71, suggesting a potential upside of 12.99%. CarMax has a consensus price target of $87.50, suggesting a potential upside of 5.91%. Given AutoNation's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe AutoNation is more favorable than CarMax.

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
CarMax	3 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.29

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, AN or KMX?

AutoNation has higher revenue and earnings than CarMax. AutoNation is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CarMax, 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	0.26	$692.20M	$16.94	10.70
CarMax	$26.54B	0.48	$479.20M	$2.95	28.01

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AN or KMX?

CarMax received 318 more outperform votes than AutoNation when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.16% of users gave CarMax 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%
CarMax	Outperform Votes 703 63.16%	Underperform Votes 410 36.84%

Is AN or KMX more profitable?

AutoNation has a net margin of 2.59% compared to CarMax's net margin of 1.77%. AutoNation's return on equity of 30.48% beat CarMax's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AutoNation	2.59%	30.48%	5.62%
CarMax	1.77%	7.49%	1.69%

Summary

AutoNation beats CarMax on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.