So as a buyer in the autoworld for the past decade, I've been following Carvana's progress. My personal experience is that they typically overpay at auctions and for buying people's cars compared to most dealers. This allows them to get a bunch of inventory. Stuff they don't want to keep, they just sell at auctions. They recondition vehicles on their own to keep those costs down. They are typically competitive when selling vehicles on the retail market, but not always. But while they are reporting a gross profit per unit, they continually report losing money on their year end financials with a net loss time after time. Their annual losses last year were $460 million. I believe the key to them staying in business is that they are making money on the financing side of it. They are essentially a finance company that happens to sell cars.
I wish I had bought some of their stock last year at this time when it tumbled to $22-$30. Lately, it's been in the $280 to $300 range, but dropping a bit.
Carvana improves Q4, FY 2020 revenue as losses widen
Carvana, an e-commerce platform for buying used cars that delivers cars to customers with a massive, coin-operated vending machine, boosted its revenue for Q4 and full year 2020 as losses widened over 2019, according to an earnings release. Revenue for…
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