Automotive retailer Lithia Motors (NYSE:LAD) will be reporting results this Wednesday before market hours. Here’s what to expect.
Lithia missed analysts’ revenue expectations by 2% last quarter, reporting revenues of $9.58 billion, up 3.8% year on year. It was a strong quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a solid beat of analysts’ gross margin estimates.
Is Lithia a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.
This quarter, analysts are expecting Lithia’s revenue to grow 2.2% year on year to $9.43 billion, slowing from the 11.4% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $8.65 per share.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Lithia has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates five times over the last two years.
Looking at Lithia’s peers in the automotive and marine retail segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. CarMax’s revenues decreased 6% year on year, missing analysts’ expectations by 6.7%, and AutoZone reported flat revenue, in line with consensus estimates. CarMax traded down 21.4% following the results while AutoZone was up 1.6%.
Read our full analysis of CarMax’s results here and AutoZone’s results here.
The euphoria surrounding Trump’s November win lit a fire under major indices, but potential tariffs have caused the market to do a 180 in 2025. While some of the automotive and marine retail stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 4.6% on average over the last month. Lithia is down 7.1% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $384.79 (compared to the current share price of $309.22).
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