....And ended the day up $3. Go figure. Nothing's changed. They still have too many stores, too much overhead, and too high of prices.
AZO in particular has horrible service. Their parts "guys" are usually single moms who cant even drive a standard transmission much less rebuild a carb or replace a thermostat or even do an oil change. How the hell are they gonna sell you parts? With a computer? RIIIIIiiiiight. They know nothing, don't wanna know nothing, can't be bothered, and hey, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. OTOH, GF's parts guy has been working at the same CarQuest shop for almost 50 years. Went in for new wiper blades yesterday. While I was jacking my jaws about the crab season and the stock market and marine diesels and the feasibility of trying to eat one of the half tame geese that hang out around the canals, with his minions, this guy went out in the parking lot and changed the wipers before I could even get to it. Service? Well, he gets paid decently and works in an environment where they will hire a girl, but only if she can do the job like a man, not just to fill a gender quota. Autozone is a mechanical engineering intellectual wasteland. I hope they go down to penny stock status and get delisted. They deserve it.
Can your grocer cook a gourmet meal? You have stupid expectations and then follow up with having a parts jockey change your wiper blades because you are either too cheap to have your mechanic do it when in for service or you are too stupid to be able to do it yourself. You pick!
They say people should invest in what they know. You certainly do not know the industry. These shops will call 3,4, 5 suppliers to see who has the part on the shelf, that's who gets the order. They do not want to wait an hour let alone 24. When AMZN announced their move, it was an easy short. AZO will never see 800 again, you were actually right. It blew past 800 so fast it probably never saw it. AZO doesn't trade well on fundamentals? Just throw up a weekly chart, watch earnings. Overperform? Wait for a weekly close higher than earnings week. Vice versa for an earnings miss. Money in the bank.
LOL I don't expect them to do the work! But if they have no knowledge of cars, they have no knowledge of parts. I didn't have our parts guy change the wipers. He just snuck out there and did it. I was going to do it. Only takes two minutes. Why the hostility?
Well there's a lot here to discuss. You are right, people should invest in what they understand, but if I may... owning a garage, understanding what it takes to get a part in an hour, or how to change Growley's wiper blades.... has absolutely zero to do with the price of this stock in particular and where its heading. Same goes for using a rear view mirror on the chart for the last several years as a "money in the bank" prognostication of future levels in the share price. Look, there's no denying this thing has been run like a thing of accounting perfection for the last 10 or so years. If that CEO ever jumps ship to a company that needs a turnaround, I would buy the stock sight unseen. AZO's quarterly execution on paper might as well be a Swiss watch. But there comes a time when a particular market segment approaches market saturation. IMO, the retail/wholesale auto-parts replacement sector has reached that level. There's too many players. Last year they repurchased over 2 Million shares to the tune of over just $2 Billion dollars. That is nearly 10% of the shares outstanding. They are carrying about $5B in lt debt, on a market-cap of $26B. Their effective tax rate over that period dropped from 24% to 20%. What better way to spend that savings. No dividend of course.... and last year they terminated the defined benefits pension plan for their employee's. 3% same store sales growth is so-so. Inventory levels per store increased. We'll see, but I think anything near $1200 on this thing will be an incredible shorting opportunity going forward.
Which is only 50% above your never seen again $800. Maybe you were just early or your meant $1,800. And the fact that you don't how their customers think or operate means there is no way can understand their business.
Well, your lack of knowledge sure didn't anticipate it going to 1180 now did it? If someone thought you knew what you were talking about and shorted it at 800...oops. No prognostication of where price would be in the future from me, don't need to "know". If it goes, it goes. If not, then not. But it seems pretty basic to me that if earnings blowout the top, above that is where I want to get long. My weekly close scenario is just what I prefer as a signal. Keeps me from getting an itchy trigger finger. .