Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, auto parts retailer AutoZone
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at AutoZone's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
AutoZone facts
| Headquarters (founded) | Memphis, Tenn. (1979) |
| Market Cap | $14.7 billion |
| Industry | Automotive retail |
| Trailing-12-Month Revenue | $8.4 billion |
| Management | Chairman/CEO William Rhodes, III CFO William Giles |
| Return on Capital (average, past 3 years) | 37.6% |
| Cash/Debt | $116.8 million / $3.5 billion |
| Competitors |
Advance Auto Parts O'Reilly Automotive Pep Boys |
Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 31% of the 555 members who have rated AutoZone believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.
A couple of months ago, one of those Fools, uvapan05, nicely summed up the long-term bear case for our community:
[AutoZone's] management has identified two factors as having statistically significant correlation with their sales growth: (1) miles driven and (2) # of vehicles 7 years or older on the road.
Regarding point 1: the average price of gasoline is a significant factor in determining the number of miles driven for average people. While prices have declined since the end of their last fiscal quarter, it has been increasing recently and likely only going to continue to grow. ...
Regarding point 2: as fuel costs take a greater chunk out of consumers' wallet, they have less money to potentially put toward a new vehicle. Therefore, the number of 7 yr vehicles on the road may continue to trend in [AutoZone's] favor.
These 2 points sort of cancel each other out in the short term, but I think that in the long term [AutoZone's] prospects are dimming. Increasing fuel costs are almost a certainty, and should the economy continue to see signs of improvement, people may begin to ditch their old clunkers and embrace new automobiles.
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