Lithia Motors (LAD) Competitors

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

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer LAD or KMX?

CarMax received 209 more outperform votes than Lithia Motors when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.31% of users gave Lithia Motors an outperform vote while only 63.23% of users gave CarMax an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Lithia Motors	Outperform Votes 496 66.31%	Underperform Votes 252 33.69%
CarMax	Outperform Votes 705 63.23%	Underperform Votes 410 36.77%

Do analysts prefer LAD or KMX?

Lithia Motors currently has a consensus price target of $371.36, indicating a potential upside of 20.95%. CarMax has a consensus price target of $90.82, indicating a potential upside of 21.10%. Given CarMax's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe CarMax is more favorable than Lithia Motors.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lithia Motors	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.64
CarMax	2 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.46

Is LAD or KMX more profitable?

Lithia Motors has a net margin of 2.21% compared to CarMax's net margin of 1.77%. Lithia Motors' return on equity of 12.43% beat CarMax's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lithia Motors	2.21%	12.43%	3.53%
CarMax	1.77%	7.49%	1.69%

Which has higher earnings and valuation, LAD or KMX?

Lithia Motors has higher revenue and earnings than CarMax. Lithia Motors 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
Lithia Motors	$36.19B	0.22	$802M	$29.68	10.34
CarMax	$25.98B	0.44	$479.20M	$2.95	25.42

Which has more volatility & risk, LAD or KMX?

Lithia Motors has a beta of 1.69, suggesting that its stock price is 69% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CarMax has a beta of 1.76, suggesting that its stock price is 76% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to LAD or KMX?

In the previous week, CarMax had 21 more articles in the media than Lithia Motors. MarketBeat recorded 27 mentions for CarMax and 6 mentions for Lithia Motors. Lithia Motors' average media sentiment score of 1.47 beat CarMax's score of 0.99 indicating that Lithia Motors is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Lithia Motors	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
CarMax	13 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Lithia Motors beats CarMax on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.