Sometimes, all it takes to find your true potential is for someone to be willing to tell people they like you. That was about all it took for America’s Car-Mart (NASDAQ:CRMT) to blast up over 17% in Monday afternoon’s trading, with just an upgrade at Stephens.
Pick the best stocks and maximize your portfolio:
- Discover top-rated stocks from highly ranked analysts with Analyst Top Stocks!
- Easily identify outperforming stocks and invest smarter with Top Smart Score Stocks
Stephens analysts noted that the automotive sector experienced a lot of disruptions of late. Which is true; we all remember the COVID-19 driven closures, and the supply chain driven crunches, and now the interest rate-driven slump. But despite all these seemingly negative factors, Stephens believes this is a great opportunity for Car-Mart to advance. In fact, Stephens believes in Car-Mart so hard that it nearly doubled the price target on the stock, going from $70 to $135 and hiking the rating from “equal weight” to “overweight”.
Here’s where Stephens really expects Car-Mart to take off. Since several auto lenders are getting out of the market altogether, that’s an opportunity for Car-Mart to enjoy an environment with a lot less competition and a lot better ability to finance what it sells. Car-Mart wasn’t exactly in a bad position to begin with; Automotive News recently revealed that America’s Car-Mart is actually the sixth largest used car sales chain in the United States by sales volume. With 156 dealerships located across 12 states, it can take advantage of discrepancies in the market to make better total sales.
A look at the last five days in trading for America’s Car-Mart shows just how much impact this news had. America’s Car-Mart stock had been on a bit of a decline, but with today’s news, it started a nice ramp up that lasted most of the trading day. It held on to those gains even as the closing bell approached for Monday’s trading.
