KAR Auction Services (KAR-N)

(A Top Pick July 18/17 - Up 51%.) Unfortunately, they got out early. The company is splitting into two business. One is selling car at auctions. The other is into selling salvage vehicles. Valuation went out of whack.

(A Top Pick July 7/16. Up 21%.) This does 2 things. It sells cars that are coming off lease. Secondly, it sells salvaged cars. There are half a million junked cars as a result of hurricane damage in Florida and Texas.

The 2^nd largest provider of car and salvage auction vehicles. It doesn’t take any balance sheet risks. Cars that come off lease go through its auction houses, so it is a really low CapX, high margin business. Dividend yield of 3.2%. (Analysts’ price target is $51.)

There are 2 main parts to this. When people buy a car and lease it and it comes off lease 3 years later, almost all those cars go to auction houses, and this is the biggest one. We have had a huge boom in new car sales. 3 years later there is going to be a huge boom in the auction business. They also have a huge salvage business. When cars are in accidents and are written off, they end up at these auction houses. With cheap gasoline, North Americans are driving more miles than any time in history, and many of them are doing it while texting, etc. Dividend yield of 2.79%.