Sonic Automotive Inc. (NYSE: SAH) stock jumped 3.87% on Tuesday to $42.44 against a previous-day closing price of $40.86. With 0.69 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 0.39 million shares. During the session, the Auto & Truck Dealerships company that operates in wider Consumer Cyclical sector, reached to the highest price of $43.97 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $40.42. The 52-week range on SAH shows that it touched its highest point at $62.26 and its lowest point at $34.17 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $55.50. With its current market cap of 1.54 billion, SAH has annualized dividend of $1.16 while the current yield stands at 2.73%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.83.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of SAH was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 8.63%, but this was down by -19.74% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -26.61% while six-month performance fell -17.72%. The stock lost -1.53% in the past year, while it has lost -13.86% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for SAH yields 0.65 with Next year EPS estimates of 6.92. For the next quarter, that number is 1.59. This implies an EPS growth rate of -72.30% for this year and 5.72% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 15.30% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 8.50%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 35.90 million SAH shares are outstanding with a float of 16.52 million shares on hand for trading. On Apr 27, 2023, short shares totaled 3.24 million, which was 9.16% higher than short shares on Mar 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. David Bruton Smith as the firm’s CEO & Chairman, Mr. Frank Jeff Dyke serves as its Pres & Director.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 89.06% of SAH’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 48.42% of SAH, in contrast to 45.19% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 34.57%. As the largest shareholder in SAH with 11.43% of the stake, BlackRock Fund Advisors holds 2,745,716 shares worth 2,745,716. A second-largest stockholder of SAH, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP, holds 2,039,074 shares, controlling over 8.49% of the firm’s shares. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in SAH, holding 1,826,146 shares or 7.61% stake. With a 5.05% stake in SAH, the iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 1,211,518 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The DFA US Small Cap Value Portfolio, which owns about 2.15% of SAH stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 515,604 shares valued at 22.95 million. Delaware Small Cap Core Fund holds 1.86% of the stake in SAH, owning 446,773 shares worth 19.89 million.
An Overview of Recent Financials:
Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Mar 30, 2023, SAH reported revenue of $3.65B and operating income of $154.80M. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $184.70M and diluted EPS was $2.34.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for SAH since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With SAH analysts setting a high price target of $58.00 and a low target of $35.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $50.50. Based on these targets, SAH could surge 36.66% to reach the target high and fall by -17.53% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 18.99% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded SAH stock several times over the past three months with 4 Buys and 7 Sells. In these transactions, 109,021 shares were bought while 125,205 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 14 while that of sell transactions has risen to 21 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 2,233,937 while 557,030 shares were sold.
