After years of losses, auto-retailer CarMax Group started making money in 2000 and its stock has been on a roll ever since. But now that investors have better idea of how the company does it, some believe the stock may be maxed out, according to a Wall Street Journal story by Aaron Elstein.

CarMax, based in Richmond, Va., is a major dealer of new and used cars, with 40 stores around the country. Thanks to a "no haggle" approach popular with many consumers and an unusually strong car market since last fall, the company's earnings have jumped and its stock

soared to an all-time high of $34 recently from as low as $1.31 in early 2000, when investors all but abandoned hope that the company would ever make money.

But earlier this week, CarMax surprised some investors when it reported that it makes more money from financing cars than from selling

them. In a press release May 14, it said it earned $82.2 million, or 56 percent, of its $146 million of pre-tax income from financing cars in fiscal 2002, which ended Feb. 28. Financing operations contributed 74 percent of

CarMax's $73.5 million pre-tax income in fiscal 2001, and the company generated $39.8 million in financing income in 2000, a year when it pre-tax income came in at $1.8 million.

CarMax, in business since 1993 and majority

owned by Richmond, Va.-retailer Circuit City Group, hadn't disclosed such detailed information before, according to the Journal.