It holds our highest takeover rating

Article Excerpt

CARS.COM INC. $23 (Nasdaq symbol CARS; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 71.9 million; Market cap: $1.7 billion; No dividends paid; Takeover Target Rating: Highest; www.cars.com) is an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of new and used cars. On May 31, 2017, Tegna Inc. (New York symbol TGNA) spun off the then-subsidiary as a separate firm. Investors then received one share in Cars.com for every three Tegna shares they held. In the quarter ended September 30, 2018, the company’s revenue rose 5.9%, to $169.3 million from $159.9 million a year earlier. Total traffic to the website gained 11.9%, with 68% of those visits made using mobile devices. Earnings per share jumped 14.6%, to $0.55 from $0.48. New York-based activist investor Starboard Value, which owns roughly 10% of Cars.com, feels the stock is undervalued. Since it became a separate company, Cars.com’s shares have declined 14%. Starboard believes the company should generate annual free cash flow of at least $4.00 a share by the end of 2020. In the first…