Used-car retailer America’s Car-Mart (NASDAQ: CRMT) beat Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2025, with sales up 1.9% year on year to $370.2 million. Its GAAP profit of $1.26 per share was 46.1% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
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America's Car-Mart (CRMT) Q1 CY2025 Highlights:
- Revenue: $370.2 million vs analyst estimates of $343.5 million (1.9% year-on-year growth, 7.8% beat)
- EPS (GAAP): $1.26 vs analyst estimates of $0.86 (46.1% beat)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $33.92 million vs analyst estimates of $25.12 million (9.2% margin, 35.1% beat)
- Operating Margin: 8.6%, up from 5.1% in the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow was $18.44 million, up from -$12.01 million in the same quarter last year
- Locations: 154 at quarter end, in line with the same quarter last year
- Same-Store Sales fell 3.9% year on year (-5.3% in the same quarter last year)
- Market Capitalization: $477 million
Company Overview
With a strong presence in the Southern and Central US, America’s Car-Mart (NASDAQ: CRMT) sells used cars to budget-conscious consumers.
Sales Growth
Examining a company’s long-term performance can provide clues about its quality. Any business can have short-term success, but a top-tier one grows for years.
With $1.39 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, America's Car-Mart is a small retailer, which sometimes brings disadvantages compared to larger competitors benefiting from economies of scale and negotiating leverage with suppliers. On the bright side, it can grow faster because it has more white space to build new stores.
As you can see below, America's Car-Mart grew its sales at a solid 13% compounded annual growth rate over the last six years (we compare to 2019 to normalize for COVID-19 impacts) despite not opening many new stores.
This quarter, America's Car-Mart reported modest year-on-year revenue growth of 1.9% but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 7.8%.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 4.7% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last six years. Still, this projection is healthy and implies the market sees success for its products.
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Store Performance
Number of Stores
America's Car-Mart listed 154 locations in the latest quarter and has kept its store count flat over the last two years while other consumer retail businesses have opted for growth.
When a retailer keeps its store footprint steady, it usually means demand is stable and it’s focusing on operational efficiency to increase profitability.
Same-Store Sales
The change in a company's store base only tells one side of the story. The other is the performance of its existing locations and e-commerce sales, which informs management teams whether they should expand or downsize their physical footprints. Same-store sales provides a deeper understanding of this issue because it measures organic growth at brick-and-mortar shops for at least a year.
America's Car-Mart’s demand has been shrinking over the last two years as its same-store sales have averaged 2.7% annual declines. This performance isn’t ideal, and we’d be concerned if America's Car-Mart starts opening new stores to artificially boost revenue growth.
In the latest quarter, America's Car-Mart’s same-store sales fell by 3.9% year on year. This decrease represents a further deceleration from its historical levels. We hope the business can get back on track.
Key Takeaways from America's Car-Mart’s Q1 Results
We were impressed by how significantly America's Car-Mart blew past analysts’ revenue, EPS, and adjusted operating income expectations this quarter. Zooming out, we think this quarter featured some important positives. The stock traded up 6.9% to $61.75 immediately following the results.
Sure, America's Car-Mart had a solid quarter, but if we look at the bigger picture, is this stock a buy? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free.
