AutoNation (AN)

Another small stake in AutoNation (AN) at $6.25 following Eddie's lead; he's raised his stake to 44.5%.

AutoNation's revenue breakout for the three months ended 9/30/08:

• Domestic (primarily GM, Ford, Chrysler) 33.8%
• Import (primarily Toyota, Honda, Nissan) 39.8%
• Premium Luxury (primarily Mercedes, BMW, Lexus) 25.5%
• Corporate and other .7%

Income excluding Corporate and other:

• Domestic 19.4% of $119.1 million
• Import 44.2%
• Premium Luxury 36.4%

AutoNation has been orchestrating company direction based on their prediction of new vehicle sales in the low-13 million unit level for 2008.

As a sidebar I consider it to be a tremendous year to be down just 5.07% YTD and considering that the Bud liquidation (a monster position) has now increased cash reserves to nearly 45% I'm growing inclined to ratchet up our risk just a tad.

Neither being a quant nor a technical analyst is very helpful in the current investment climate, however, if you've had a successful year and you're flush with cash then you can take a little bit more risk and try to vulture some trades. We're looking at AutoNation, bailout or not.