Ask Matt: What should I do with my Pep Boys' shares?

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A: Pep Boys' Manny, Moe & Jack will soon be driving off of Wall Street.

The auto parts dealer, which sells auto materials and vehicle service, has been publicly traded since 1988. And it's been a bumpy road for investors. The stock began trading at around $13 a share, got as high at $35 in 1996, and is back down to $15.

Since 1988, the stock has only gained about 15%, which is pretty disappointing compared with the rest of the stock market. The Standard & Poor's 500 index, during the same time period, rose more than 400%.

Leaving money parked in shares of Pep Boys has been a very trying experience for investors. At the end of 1992, the year you bought the stock, Pep Boys shares were trading for roughly $22. So you've ridden the shares all this time and have a 32% loss to show for it.

Some investors might find comfort in the fact Pep Boys pays a dividend. Currently, though, the stock yields a scant 0.8%. While a small dividend is better than no dividend, that dividend is less than half the 2% currently generated by the S&P 500.

Waiting for Pep Boys' stock to get fired up could try the patience of just about any investor. And perhaps that's why one investor finally said enough. Los Angeles-based private-equity firm Gores Group agreed on Feb. 2 to buy the company for $15 a share to take it private.

Gores Group is in the business of buying companies, trying to find ways to make them more profitable, and running them for cash flow or to bring them back as initial public offerings. One of the company's more recognizable recent deals was its acquisition of VeriFone, a company that makes devices used to process credit card payments.

What about your shares? Ultimately, you probably won't have much of a choice. Unless the buyout is blocked, you will likely be selling your shares to Gores for $15.

Currently, the shares are trading for slightly more than $15 at $15.20 a share, perhaps indicating investors' bets that the final value of the deal might be a bit higher. If you're looking for a chance to get out of a stock that's done nothing for you, now's probably as good as a time as any. You might hold out and see if the value of the deal rises to above $15, but if you're wrong, you'll miss out on the extra 20 cents a share by just selling now.

Whether you take your money now, or wait for the purchase by Gores, eventually you'll be cashed out. Hopefully your next stock doesn't just drive you around in circles.

Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies and Fundamental Analysis for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com. Follow Matt on Twitter at: twitter.com/mattkrantz