Cars.com (CARS) Competitors

Cars.com (NYSE:CARS) and CarGurus (NASDAQ:CARG) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation and community ranking.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in CARS or CARG?

CarGurus received 281 more outperform votes than Cars.com when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.67% of users gave Cars.com an outperform vote while only 63.37% of users gave CarGurus an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Cars.com	Outperform Votes 238 64.67%	Underperform Votes 130 35.33%
CarGurus	Outperform Votes 519 63.37%	Underperform Votes 300 36.63%

Do institutionals and insiders believe in CARS or CARG?

89.2% of Cars.com shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.9% of CarGurus shares are held by institutional investors. 2.1% of Cars.com shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 17.2% of CarGurus 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 media favor CARS or CARG?

In the previous week, CarGurus had 5 more articles in the media than Cars.com. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for CarGurus and 2 mentions for Cars.com. CarGurus' average media sentiment score of 0.76 beat Cars.com's score of 0.57 indicating that CarGurus is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Cars.com	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
CarGurus	2 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts recommend CARS or CARG?

Cars.com presently has a consensus price target of $23.00, indicating a potential upside of 30.50%. CarGurus has a consensus price target of $38.41, indicating a potential upside of 1.64%. Given Cars.com's higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Cars.com is more favorable than CarGurus.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cars.com	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
CarGurus	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.91

Which has more risk & volatility, CARS or CARG?

Cars.com has a beta of 2.15, indicating that its stock price is 115% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CarGurus has a beta of 1.58, indicating that its stock price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has better earnings and valuation, CARS or CARG?

Cars.com has higher earnings, but lower revenue than CarGurus. CarGurus is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cars.com, 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
Cars.com	$689.18M	1.66	$118.44M	$0.58	30.39
CarGurus	$914.24M	4.29	$31.10M	-$0.46	-82.15

Is CARS or CARG more profitable?

Cars.com has a net margin of 5.46% compared to CarGurus' net margin of -5.47%. CarGurus' return on equity of 13.96% beat Cars.com's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cars.com	5.46%	9.99%	4.33%
CarGurus	-5.47%	13.96%	8.92%

Summary

CarGurus beats Cars.com on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.