Being a guy, the thought of owning a car for too long (unless it's a '64 1/2 Mustang) starts to feel mundane, like Seattle's long rainy season. I recently went into a used car lot -- conveniently called a "pre-owned inventory lot" these days -- but wasn't treated well.
My negative used car experience aside, the key to any successful negotiation or purchase is preparation. You might as well be naked if you walk into a car dealership without knowing: (a) what the car likely cost the dealer, and (b) what you can afford. Car salesmen are willing and able to take advantage of rampant stupidity and can smell it from half a parking lot away.
One used car retailer that has been fairly consistent in seeing people for their nakedness is America's Car-Mart (NASDAQ:CRMT). The company operates 76 used car dealerships in seven south-central U.S. states and considers itself a "buy here/pay here" retailer. By controlling both the sale of the vehicle and the financing, America's Car-Mart has effectively diversified its sales base. Other used car sales companies, such as CarMax (NYSE:KMX), have struggled recently because of the dependence on car sales.
The company reported a 17% revenue increase in the second quarter, with an equally impressive 10.3% same-store sales increase (both figures over the year-ago quarter). Similar car companies such as AutoNation (NYSE:AN), which sells mostly new vehicles at its 360 locations, employ a comparable retail concept to America's Car-Mart and have also experienced double-digit sales growth. Additionally, I don't really see General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Toyota (NYSE:TM) as direct competitors to America's Car-Mart because new-car price points are much higher than the company's average selling price of $7,000.
America's Car-Mart's earnings did fall a penny short of the consensus second-quarter estimate of $0.56 per share; however, this did little to drain my positive energy for the 15% increase over last year's earnings of $0.48 per share. The key highlight for me was the drop in the delinquency rate (the percentage of accounts more than 30 days past due) from 5.2% to 3.5%. This 170-basis-point improvement came as a result of tighter delinquency standards adopted by the company last February.
Flashing forward, the company expects earnings pretty much in the range of its previous forecasts and consensus estimates. The shares, which are trading at 13 times this year's earnings estimate of $2.34 per share, appear to be attractive relative to the company's 18% next-five-years earnings growth rate expected by analysts. Despite a more than 3% drop in its share price (because of the slight earnings miss), America's Car-Mart remains a successful niche player that is able to execute an extremely tight and well-thought-out business plan.
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Fool contributor Phil Wohl spent more than 12 years on Wall Street and does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned above.
