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CarMax

KMX on NYSE. CarMax sells used cars, auto loans, and wholesale vehicles to consumers and dealers. Market value $7.8bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to August 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to February 2026.

The company doesn't report operating profit, so we work it out from pre-tax profit and interest.

Should I look at this?

Not a fit for our list right now

Why it could be worth it

What to watch out for

See Retail & consumer stocks that passed both tests

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Cash yield
past 12 months to August 2026
14.7%very high

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $14.72 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to August 2026
43.5×full

You pay 43.5 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to February 2026
2.5%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 2 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 39 of 100. Price score: 54 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$54.86 a share, 81% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $30.26 to $65.28.

Pays no dividend

Prices from Monday’s close (5 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

-2.9
0.9
-0.0
0.2
1.2
1.1
2022202320242025202612 monthsto Aug '26
Revenue
$31.9bn$29.7bn$26.5bn$26.4bn$25.9bn
Operating margin
5.0%2.6%2.9%2.9%1.9%
Debt to equity
3.583.273.093.003.07
Shares outstanding
0.16bn0.16bn0.15bn0.14bn0.14bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive3 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)7 of 9
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
  • Debt3.07× equity
  • Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 6.4% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesYes, 10% fewer since 2022

The quarter to August 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $7.9 billion last quarter, up 19% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $165 million, up 73% on a year ago.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $1.1 billion, up from $685 million.
  • 5% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
  • Debt is $17.2 billion more than cash, down from $18.1 billion a year ago.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in 2 of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
November 2024$6.2bn
February 2025$6.0bn
May 2025$7.5bn
August 2025$6.6bn
November 2025$5.8bn
February 2026$5.9bn
May 2026$8.0bn
August 2026$7.9bn
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
November 2024$125m
February 2025$90m
May 2025$210m
August 2025$95m
November 2025$62m
February 2026-$121m
May 2026$186m
August 2026$165m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
15 April 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
30 December 2026

Who owns it

12 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 12 last quarter. 554 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26
Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

4 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

In the last 12 months, 5 insiders bought $1m of shares on the open market.

  • Chawla Sona
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    25 June 2026
    Shares
    2,000
    Price
    $53.39
    Value
    $106,780
  • Shinder Marcella
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    25 June 2026
    Shares
    574
    Price
    $52.01
    Value
    $29,854
  • ONeil Mark F
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    24 June 2026
    Shares
    9,600
    Price
    $52.36
    Value
    $502,656
  • Bensen Peter J
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    22 June 2026
    Shares
    2,500
    Price
    $52.20
    Value
    $130,500
  • Barr Keith
    President and CEO, Director
    Bought
    Date
    22 June 2026
    Shares
    9,400
    Price
    $53.01
    Value
    $498,294

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 15 Apr 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 30 Sep 2026 and 6 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

  • It carries a lot of debt: 3.1× its equity.
  • It isn't cheap on profits: 43.5× operating profit.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.