Your Source for Up-To-Date News and Research on the Collision Repair Industry

click here to subscribe to the FREE INSIGHT Editor's Desk News Alert Email

SUBSCRIBERS-ONLY
Today's News
INSIGHT This Month
INSIGHT Archives
Survey Center
Letter to the Editor

Business Tools
Subscription Information
CSI Reporting
Financial Analysis
IRS Audit Guide

Management/
Technical Info
Market Watch Rates
INSIGHT Inside this month's issue...

Feedback
Letter to the Editor

This article originally appeared in the September 2010 Issue of INSIGHT

Just Falling Leaves

Well, the Fall season is meandering very slowly into town this year, giving me some time to really appreciate the changing colors of the leaves, the warm sunshine, the crunch of leaves on the sidewalk, and the noise of acorns thudding on the roof. And, no, I have not completely changed gears to pen a Nature appreciation article. I just hated to come back indoors to see if our industry related stocks’ per share prices are falling like Autumn leaves.

I am relieved to find that the season on Wall Street is slowly edging toward November’s mid-term elections. There are, so far at least, only miniscule changes at the Stock Exchange.

Refinish paint manufacturer Akzo Nobel’s per share stock price continued to improve somewhat this month, but Akzo’s per share stock price of just over $56 is still over 16 percent off its New Year mark. Two readers e-mailed me, asking why Akzo Nobel has been our only paint manufacturer to remain well below the company’s January per share price of $67.05. I wish that I had a profound bit of wisdom to share with you about this, but I must admit Akzo’s stock performance has been a puzzle to me this year.

Our other refinish coatings manufacturers, DuPont, PPG, Sherwin-Williams, and Valspar, all continued to perform nicely at the Dow this month, with DuPont leading the paint pack. DuPont’s per share price of $40.59 posted a rise of nearly 20 percent YTD.

Our national car dealership groups, except for AutoNation, saw more than leaves fall this month. The Penske Automo-tive Group per share price of $12.55 was up a tad from last month, but is still over 17 percent off its January posting. Sonic Automotive’s per share price slipped over 20 percent YTD, to $8.52 per share. CarMax climbed a bit this month, but, at just a hair under $21 per share of stock, the auto seller is still off its start of 2010 mark by over 14 percent YTD.

AutoNation jumped far out in front of the pack this month. My jaw is falling as I note the over 17 percent improvement per share stock price of $22.83, a very tidy improvement of over 17 percent above the vehicle retailer’s January price.

By the way, our INSIGHT Fund Index has been steadily improving over the past few months. I am pleased that our index is currently over 27 percent above its January mark.

-Charles Baker-

Feedback

Have a comment about this article? Send Email to Charles Baker, INSIGHT's Publisher

SUBSCRIBERS-ONLY Today's News INSIGHT This Month INSIGHT Archives Survey Center Letter to the Editor

Business Tools Subscription Information CSI Reporting Financial Analysis IRS Audit Guide