Head-To-Head Contrast: America’s Car-Mart (CRMT) and Its Peers

America’s Car-Mart (NASDAQ:CRMT) is one of 285 publicly-traded companies in the “Specialty Retail” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare America’s Car-Mart to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, earnings, valuation and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for America’s Car-Mart and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
America’s Car-Mart	1	1	0	0	1.50
America’s Car-Mart Competitors	3701	15637	21656	594	2.46

America’s Car-Mart currently has a consensus target price of $14.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1,396.85%. As a group, “Specialty Retail” companies have a potential upside of 5.18%. Given America’s Car-Mart’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe America’s Car-Mart is more favorable than its competitors.

Volatility & Risk

America’s Car-Mart has a beta of 1.33, meaning that its share price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, America’s Car-Mart’s competitors have a beta of 1.91, meaning that their average share price is 91% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares America’s Car-Mart and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
America’s Car-Mart	$1.09 billion	-$139.11 million	-0.04
America’s Car-Mart Competitors	$7.06 billion	$386.51 million	31.37

America’s Car-Mart’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than America’s Car-Mart. America’s Car-Mart is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.1% of America’s Car-Mart shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.9% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are owned by institutional investors. 18.4% of America’s Car-Mart shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 20.5% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares America’s Car-Mart and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
America’s Car-Mart	-18.21%	-15.19%	-4.73%
America’s Car-Mart Competitors	-3.59%	-28.53%	3.21%

Summary

America’s Car-Mart competitors beat America’s Car-Mart on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

America’s Car-Mart Company Profile

America’s Car-Mart, Inc. is a buy-here, pay-here used-car retailer that sells pre-owned vehicles through its dealership network and provides financing directly to many customers. Its integrated sales and financing model serves people who may have limited access to traditional auto loans. The company primarily operates in the South Central United States, with dealerships across several states in the region. Its business traces back to 1981, when founder Bill Fleeman opened the first Car-Mart dealership in Arkansas.