AutoZone's Financial Strength: A Moneyball Analysis

AutoZone (NYSE: AZO) is a dominant force in the automotive parts retail industry, with over 7,000 stores across multiple countries. Here's how the automotive parts specialist stacks up according to The Motley Fool's Moneyball analysis system.

How Moneyball Works: AI-Assisted Investment Scores

Moneyball combines artificial intelligence with expert analysis to evaluate companies across multiple dimensions. The system analyzes various metrics including financial performance, technology implementation, product strength, and leadership quality to generate objective scores that help investors make more informed decisions.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Breaking Down AutoZone's Scores

AutoZone's Superscore of 74/100 reflects strong overall business fundamentals, particularly driven by its exceptional Financial score of 93/100.

AutoZone's Moneyball Scorecard:

• Superscore: 74/100
• Financial: 93/100
• Technology: 55/100
• Product: 72/100
• Leadership: 65/100
• AI: 37/100
• Surge: 46/100
• GARP: 88/100
• ROUNTA: 95.4%

Standout Metrics and Areas for Growth

Return on unleveraged net tangible assets (ROUNTA) is a metric Warren Buffett favors for measuring efficiency in generating returns from physical assets. AutoZone's ROUNTA of 95.4% demonstrates exceptional efficiency in generating cash flow from its asset base.

AutoZone ranks among the top performers in the Moneyball database for financial health. AutoZone's financial health is bolstered by steady revenue growth, strong free cash flow (generating $1.9 billion over the past year), and excellent margins.

The company's GARP (growth at a reasonable price) score of 88/100 suggests attractive growth potential relative to the stock's valuation. AutoZone consistently buys back shares -- its diluted share count has decreased 42% over the past 10 years -- providing a steady tailwind for its per-share metrics.

Looking to the Future

While AutoZone shows strength in traditional metrics, its Technology score of 55/100 and AI score of 37/100 indicate room for improvement in its digital transformation. AutoZone does rank higher in both of these Moneyball scores, however, compared to its peers Advance Auto Parts (NYSE: AAP) and O'Reilly Automotive (NASDAQ: ORLY).

What These Scores Mean for Investors

AutoZone's Moneyball scores paint a picture of a financially robust company with strong fundamentals and efficient operations. AutoZone shares trade for 22.7 times trailing earnings, however, essentially the highest multiple the stock has traded at in the past decade.

To justify its premium valuation, AutoZone will have to prove it can live up to these Moneyball scores, avoid disruption in the shift toward electric and autonomous vehicles, and continue its steady compounding over the long term.

Should you invest $1,000 in AutoZone right now?

Before you buy stock in AutoZone, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and AutoZone wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $858,668!*

Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*.

Learn more »

*Stock Advisor returns as of February 21, 2025

David Kretzmann has positions in AutoZone. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.