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America's Car-Mart (CRMT) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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America's Car-Mart (CRMT - Free Report) closed at $100.13 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.73% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.11%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.04%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.19%.

Heading into today, shares of the auto retailer had gained 10.53% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 5.17% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.42% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from CRMT as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect CRMT to post earnings of $1.77 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 23.78%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $187.85 million, up 10.86% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $6.43 per share and revenue of $680.09 million. These totals would mark changes of +78.61% and +11.09%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for CRMT. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. CRMT is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Digging into valuation, CRMT currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 15.86. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 10.28, so we one might conclude that CRMT is trading at a premium comparatively.

Investors should also note that CRMT has a PEG ratio of 0.84 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Automotive - Retail and Whole Sales industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.49 as of yesterday's close.

The Automotive - Retail and Whole Sales industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 48, putting it in the top 19% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow CRMT in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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