October Auto Sales Fairly Strong

In case you missed it, October was a, by recent standards, a banner month for auto sales. We are still at levels that during normal times would indicate serious problems or would otherwise be dismissed a freakishly low, but the fact that the automakers are profitable at these sales levels speaks well to the performance of their stock prices.

Ford (F), has had quite a nice run as well all know, but it still is not that richly valued. According to Marketwatch data, it's trading at a little over 7x forward earnings estimates, which are probably too low. Even after rising so much so fast, it's still not exactly that rich. Now, will you make 10-fold on your money again? Certainly not. However, a decent 40% from here is certainly conceivable.

Looking elsewhere in the automotive sector to automotive parts suppliers, I don't see so many good buys, however. Borg Warner (BWA) is looking a little pricey, at least relative to the market. Johnson Controls (JCI), a personal favorite of mine, looks good from here, but not better than Ford. I kind of like Dana (DAN), but it still doesn't exactly scream "buy".

All of them have had impressive one year runs, however.

Notice the S&P 500 down there, having a respectable 15% gain that looks positively puny. Normally, after a sector has had such a break-out performance one would expect that it might be about to go through a phase of dramatic underperformance. However, before that happens I think there is still room to run for the sector as a whole, though Ford seems to be the best positioned. As for the looming GM IPO, I would need to take a good look at their financials. They've been somewhat opaque while in their quasi-public-private status.