Should CarMax Really Be Worth 10% More After Earnings

Cars and Drivers

Published: April 2, 2015 12:45 pm

Last Updated: April 2, 2015 12:47 pm

At a time when prices at the pump have fallen sharply over the course of about a year, more people are considering purchasing cars. However, new cars are fairly expensive so the alternative would be to buy used cars, which CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) specializes in. Coincidentally, the used-auto retailer just posted a record quarter.

CarMax reported its fiscal fourth-quarter results Thursday before the markets opened. The company had $0.67 in earnings per share (EPS) and $3.51 billion in revenue. That compared to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $0.60 in EPS and revenue of $3.50 billion. In the same period of the previous year, the company posted ESP of $0.52 and $3.08 billion in revenue.

During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, CarMax opened one store, entering the Cleveland market and bringing the used car store count to 144 at the end of February.

The company repurchased 3.4 million shares of common stock for $210.6 million in the fourth quarter. For the fiscal year, CarMax repurchased 17.5 million shares at a cost of $912.8 million. At the end of February, $2.37 billion remained under the repurchase program.

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For the fourth quarter, in comparison to the previous year, CarMax’s segments reported:

Used Vehicle Sales increased 12.9% to $2.90 billion.
New Vehicle Sales decreased 7.7% to $45.7 million.
Wholesale Vehicle Sales increased 17.0% to $491.9 million.

Also note that CarMax Auto Finance (CAF) income increased 11.8% to $90.4 million in the fourth quarter.

Tom Folliard, president and CEO of CarMax, said:

We had another great year, achieving several new milestones. Since opening our first store in 1993, we’ve now retailed well over 5 million used cars and 3 million wholesale cars, which is a testament to the strength of our brand. In fiscal 2015, the continued strong performance of our used, wholesale and CAF operations, along with the growth of our store base and our ongoing share repurchase program, contributed to our record earnings per share.

A few analysts made calls on CarMax ahead of earnings:

Zacks downgraded CarMax to a Hold rating from Buy with a price target of $81, implying upside of 7.9% from current prices.
Evercore initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a price target of $75.
Baird downgraded the company to a Neutral rating from Outperform.

Shares of CarMax responded to the earnings report positively and traded up 9.7% at $75.05 on Thursday morning. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $67.86 and a 52-week trading range of $42.54 to $75.13.

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