Stocks · Consumer Cyclical · Auto - Dealerships
Sonic Automotive, Inc. SAH
$62.63 -0.32% Close, Oct 5, 2026 · NYSE · Market cap $2.09B
Next earnings report: Oct 22, 2026
Scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to move. Daily prices adjusted for splits. Markers: E = earnings (green beat, red miss), S = split, D = dividend.
Three things to know
- Diluted EPS over the last four quarters was $6.30, up 40.0% year over year.
- Net debt is 7.0× EBITDA, a high level of leverage.
- The diluted share count fell 5.9% in a year, mainly through buybacks.
PromtFinance scores
Each score is a percentile within the Consumer Cyclical sector (0–100). Under each score: how the stock ranks in its sector on every component. As of Oct 6, 2026.
Growth49Neutral
How fast revenue, earnings and cash flow are growing.
- Revenue growth (TTM, YoY)Top 43%
- EPS growth (TTM, YoY)Top 22%
- FCF growth (TTM, YoY)Bottom 6%
- Revenue growth, 3-year CAGRTop 47%
- Revenue growth accelerationTop 42%
Quality9Very weak
Returns on capital, margins, earnings quality and balance-sheet strength.
- Return on invested capitalBottom 49%
- Gross marginBottom 12%
- Operating marginBottom 32%
- Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Bottom 11%
- Accruals (lower is better)Bottom 11%
- Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Bottom 18%
- Interest coverBottom 38%
Value78Positive
How cheap the shares are relative to earnings, cash flow and their own history.
- Earnings yieldTop 10%
- Free-cash-flow yieldBottom 15%
- EBITDA / enterprise valueTop 32%
- Sales / enterprise valueTop 9%
- P/E vs own 5-year history (lower is better)Top 40%
Momentum40Weak
Strength and persistence of the price trend, including versus the S&P 500.
- 12-month return excluding last monthTop 42%
- 6-month returnBottom 49%
- 1-year return vs S&P 500Bottom 37%
- Distance from 52-week highBottom 24%
- Trend checklist (0–4)Bottom 47%
Revisions34Weak
Earnings surprises and analyst sentiment (estimate-revision history is being collected).
- Average EPS surprise, last 4 quartersBottom 25%
- Consecutive EPS beatsBottom 48%
- Share of analysts rating BuyBottom 18%
- Upside to consensus price targetTop 21%
Stability36Weak
Low volatility, shallow drawdowns, low market sensitivity and modest leverage.
- Volatility, 60 days (lower is better)Bottom 22%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 yearsTop 37%
- Beta vs S&P 500 (lower is better)Top 39%
- Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Bottom 18%
What changed
Latest four quarters versus the same period a year earlier (growth: versus one quarter earlier).
| Measure | Before | Now | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 4.8% | 5.3% | ↑ |
| EPS growth (YoY) | -54.8% | 40.0% | ↑ |
| Gross margin | 15.6% | 15.7% | ↑ |
| Operating margin | 3.7% | 3.3% | ↓ |
| FCF margin | 2.3% | -0.4% | ↓ |
Fundamental momentum
| Measure | Now (TTM) | Year / quarter before | Sector rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (TTM, YoY) | 5.3% | 4.8% | ↑ | Top 43% |
| EPS growth (TTM, YoY) | 40.0% | -54.8% | ↑ | Top 22% |
| Gross margin | 15.7% | 15.6% | ↑ | Bottom 12% |
| Operating margin | 3.3% | 3.7% | ↓ | Bottom 32% |
| Net margin | 1.4% | 1.1% | ↑ | — |
| Free-cash-flow margin | -0.4% | 2.3% | ↓ | — |
| Return on invested capital | 6.0% | — | Bottom 49% | |
| Revenue growth, 3-year CAGR | 2.7% | — | Top 47% |
Quality of earnings and balance sheet
- Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Above 1× means profits are backed by cash.
- 0.80×
- Accruals (net income − OCF) / assetsLower is better; high accruals can signal weaker earnings quality.
- 0.7%
- Stock-based compensation / revenueA cost to shareholders through dilution.
- 0.1%
- Receivables growth vs revenue growthReceivables growing much faster than sales can be a warning.
- +1.7 pp
- Net debt / EBITDABelow 1× is conservative; above 3× is high leverage.
- 6.99×
- Interest cover (operating income / interest)How many times operating profit covers interest.
- 2.6×
Shareholder returns
- Dividend yield (dividends paid, TTM)
- 2.40%
- Net buyback yield (TTM)
- 8.60%
- Shareholder yield
- 11.00%
- Share count change, 1 year
- -5.9%
- Share count change, 3-year CAGR
- -3.7%
Shareholder yield = dividends + net buybacks over the last four quarters, divided by market cap.
Based on the four quarters through Jun 30, 2026 (filed Jul 30, 2026).
Earnings and expectations
Earnings momentum
- Consecutive EPS beats
- 2
- Beats in the last 8 reports
- 5 of 8
- Average EPS surprise, last 4
- -2.1%
- Average 2-day reaction, last 8
- -2.0%
- Positive 20 days after report
- 4 of 8
Analysts
- Consensus price target
- $99.20
- Target vs current price
- +58.4%
- Analysts with a rating
- 16
- Share rating Buy or Strong Buy
- 31%
- Consensus rating
- Hold
How the stock reacted to recent reports
| Report date | EPS surprise | 2 days | 5 days | 20 days | 60 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 30, 2026 | +4.0% | -10.9% | -22.9% | -30.7% | — |
| Apr 30, 2026 | +11.0% | +7.4% | +7.8% | +14.2% | +40.5% |
| Feb 18, 2026 | -0.7% | +7.9% | +7.8% | +3.8% | +30.6% |
| Oct 23, 2025 | -22.5% | -15.9% | -19.1% | -20.7% | -19.9% |
| Jul 24, 2025 | +34.4% | -5.7% | -9.7% | -2.2% | -6.7% |
| Apr 24, 2025 | +1.4% | +1.8% | +2.9% | +13.3% | +30.7% |
| Feb 12, 2025 | +3.4% | -4.0% | -3.4% | -14.0% | -12.5% |
| Oct 24, 2024 | -11.3% | +3.6% | +6.3% | +11.2% | +23.1% |
Returns from the close before each report. Past reactions do not determine future ones.
Earnings history
| Report date | EPS | Estimate | Surprise | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 30, 2026 | $1.82 | $1.75 | +4.0% | $3.93B |
| Apr 30, 2026 | $1.62 | $1.46 | +11.0% | $3.69B |
| Feb 18, 2026 | $1.52 | $1.53 | -0.7% | $3.87B |
| Oct 23, 2025 | $1.41 | $1.82 | -22.5% | $3.97B |
| Jul 24, 2025 | $2.19 | $1.63 | +34.4% | $3.66B |
| Apr 24, 2025 | $1.48 | $1.46 | +1.4% | $3.65B |
| Feb 12, 2025 | $1.51 | $1.46 | +3.4% | $3.90B |
| Oct 24, 2024 | $1.26 | $1.42 | -11.3% | $3.49B |
Valuation in context
| Multiple | Now | 5-year median | 5-year percentile | Sector rank (cheapness) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P/E (trailing) | 9.9× | 11.1× | 37th | Top 10% |
| P/E (forward) | 9.1× | — | — | — |
| EV / EBITDA | 10.1× | — | — | Top 32% |
| EV / Sales | 0.44× | — | — | Top 9% |
| Free-cash-flow yield | -2.64% | — | — | Bottom 15% |
| Earnings yield | 10.06% | — | — | Top 10% |
P/E over the past five years
Range 5.2× – 73.1× since Jun 30, 2021. Each point: price on the filing date divided by trailing-twelve-month EPS known then.
What moved the stock over the past year
- Price return, 1 year
- -18.1%
- Earnings per share growth (TTM)
- +40.0%
- Change in P/E multiple
- -5.0%
Most of the move came from earnings growth.
Technical state
Trend checklist
- ✗ Price above 20-day average
- ✗ Price above 50-day average
- ✗ Price above 200-day average
- ✓ 50-day average above 200-day
- ✓ MACD histogram positive
Trend quality
- Days above the 50-day average
- 0
- Days above the 200-day average
- 0
- 50-day average slope (20 days)
- -11.4%
- 200-day average slope (20 days)
- +0.5%
- Distance from 50-day average
- -19.1%
- Distance from 200-day average
- -14.6%
- RSI (14)
- 35.8
- Relative volume
- 0.99×
Risk and drawdowns
- Volatility, 60 days (annualized)
- 57.4%
- Volatility vs own 5-year history
- 98th percentile · High for this stock
- Beta vs S&P 500 (2 years, weekly)
- 0.89
- Correlation with S&P 500
- 0.34
- Current drawdown from 1-year high
- -44.4%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 years
- -46.9%
Largest declines in the past six years
| From peak | To low | Decline | Length | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 29, 2026 | Sep 29, 2026 | -46.9% | 43 days | Not yet recovered |
| Sep 27, 2021 | Jun 16, 2022 | -38.8% | 182 days | 48 days (Aug 25, 2022) |
| Feb 14, 2023 | May 16, 2023 | -36.3% | 63 days | 238 days (Apr 26, 2024) |
| Jul 14, 2025 | Feb 17, 2026 | -34.3% | 150 days | 98 days (Jul 9, 2026) |
| Aug 25, 2022 | Oct 20, 2022 | -29.7% | 39 days | 72 days (Feb 3, 2023) |
Declines of 10% or more from a closing high, measured on daily closes.
Financial statements
- Market cap
- $2.09B
- P/E (TTM)
- 9.9
- EPS, diluted (TTM)
- $6.30
- Revenue (TTM)
- $15.47B
- Dividend yield
- 2.52%
- 52-week range
- $54.11 – $113.67
| FY 2021 | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $12.40B | $14.00B | $14.37B | $14.22B | $15.15B |
| Gross profit | $1.91B | $2.32B | $2.25B | $2.19B | $2.38B |
| Operating income | $538.4M | $634.4M | $502.9M | $465.4M | $541.3M |
| Net income | $348.9M | $88.5M | $178.2M | $216.0M | $118.7M |
| EPS (diluted) | $8.06 | $2.23 | $4.96 | $6.18 | $3.42 |
| Q3 2024 | Q4 2024 | Q1 2025 | Q2 2025 | Q3 2025 | Q4 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $3.49B | $3.90B | $3.65B | $3.66B | $3.97B | $3.87B | $3.69B | $3.93B |
| Net income | $74.2M | $58.6M | $70.6M | -$45.6M | $46.8M | $46.9M | $60.8M | $57.4M |
| EPS (diluted) | $2.13 | $1.67 | $2.04 | -$1.34 | $1.36 | $1.36 | $1.79 | $1.79 |
| FY 2021 | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | $306.3M | $406.1M | -$15.7M | $109.2M | $567.4M |
| Capital expenditure | -$298.2M | -$227.1M | -$203.6M | -$187.3M | -$149.9M |
| Free cash flow | $8.1M | $179.0M | -$219.3M | -$78.1M | $417.5M |
| Dividends paid | -$18.3M | -$34.5M | -$40.0M | -$40.8M | -$48.8M |
| Net share buybacks | -$85.6M | -$253.2M | -$164.9M | -$28.7M | -$81.9M |
Cash outflows are shown as negative numbers.
- Cash and short-term investments
- $19.2M
- Total assets
- $6.38B
- Total liabilities
- $5.36B
- Total debt
- $4.67B
- Net debt
- $4.65B
- Shareholders’ equity
- $1.03B
As of Jun 30, 2026 (filed Jul 30, 2026).
Dividends
| Ex-date | Amount | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 15, 2026 | $0.41 | Oct 15, 2026 |
| Jun 15, 2026 | $0.41 | Jul 15, 2026 |
| Mar 13, 2026 | $0.38 | Apr 15, 2026 |
| Dec 15, 2025 | $0.38 | Jan 15, 2026 |
| Sep 15, 2025 | $0.38 | Oct 15, 2025 |
| Jun 13, 2025 | $0.35 | Jul 15, 2025 |
| Mar 14, 2025 | $0.35 | Apr 15, 2025 |
| Dec 13, 2024 | $0.35 | Jan 15, 2025 |
Short interest
- Shares sold short
- 2,196,717
- Days to cover
- 9.73
- Change vs previous report
- +6.0%
FINRA short interest, settlement date Sep 15, 2026.
Stock splits
- Jan 26, 1999
- 2-for-1