New car shortage benefits these two picks

Article Excerpt

The lack of new cars, and a longer wait for buyers, is prompting drivers to hang on to their current vehicles for now. That’s good news for Genuine Parts and Snap-On. However, we feel Genuine is the better pick right now. GENUINE PARTS CO. $136 is still a buy. The company (New York symbol GPC; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 142.5 million; Market cap: $19.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.genpt.com) is a leading seller of replacement auto parts. It has 1,100 company-owned stores (under the famous NAPA banner) and independent outlets in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. This business accounts for 66% of its total sales. The remaining 34% comes from distributing industrial parts and electrical equipment. Due to a shortage of computer chips, carmakers have had to slow their production. The lack of new cars is also pushing up the price of used cars. That’s prompting more people to fix their current vehicles…