AutoNation (AN) Competitors

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

Which has more volatility & risk, AN or KMX?

AutoNation has a beta of 1.32, indicating that its share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CarMax has a beta of 1.76, indicating that its share price is 76% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend AN or KMX?

AutoNation currently has a consensus target price of $204.71, suggesting a potential upside of 15.93%. CarMax has a consensus target price of $90.45, suggesting a potential upside of 21.96%. Given CarMax's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe CarMax 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
CarMax	2 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.38

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%

Do insiders & institutionals believe in AN or KMX?

94.6% of AutoNation shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of AutoNation shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of CarMax shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, 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	10.42
CarMax	$25.98B	0.44	$479.20M	$2.95	25.14

Does the media favor AN or KMX?

In the previous week, CarMax had 12 more articles in the media than AutoNation. MarketBeat recorded 17 mentions for CarMax and 5 mentions for AutoNation. CarMax's average media sentiment score of 1.36 beat AutoNation's score of 1.00 indicating that CarMax is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AutoNation	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
CarMax	12 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in AN or KMX?

CarMax received 319 more outperform votes than AutoNation when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.20% 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 704 63.20%	Underperform Votes 410 36.80%

Summary

CarMax beats AutoNation on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.