How to buy Sonic Automotive stock | 41.98

Sonic Automotive, Inc is an auto & truck dealerships business based in the US. Sonic Automotive shares (SAH) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Sonic Automotive employs 9,300 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$9.9 billion.

How to buy shares in Sonic Automotive

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Sonic Automotive. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: SAH. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Sonic Automotive reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$41.98, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Sonic Automotive, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Sonic Automotive. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted Sonic Automotive's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Sonic Automotive's share price has had significant positive movement.

Its last market close was USD$41.98, which is 33.06% up on its pre-crash value of USD$28.1 and 366.44% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$9.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of Sonic Automotive shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$308.28 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$1,296.76.

Sonic Automotive share price

Use our graph to track the performance of SAH stocks over time.

Sonic Automotive shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-10-20.

Latest market close	USD$41.98
52-week range	USD$9 - USD$46.84
50-day moving average	USD$41.436
200-day moving average	USD$33.0975
Wall St. target price	USD$50
PE ratio	8.3837
Dividend yield	USD$0.4 (1.01%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$2.759

Buy Sonic Automotive shares from these brokerages

Compare special offers, low fees and a wide range of types of investments among top trading platforms.

Is it a good time to buy Sonic Automotive stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Sonic Automotive, Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Sonic Automotive price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $41.98 from 2020-11-16

1 week (2020-11-20)	N/A
1 month (2020-10-30)	16.42%
3 months (2020-08-28)	N/A
6 months (2020-05-28)	N/A

1 year (2019-11-27)	N/A
2 years (2018-11-27)	N/A
3 years (2017-11-27)	N/A
5 years (2015-11-27)	N/A

Is Sonic Automotive under- or over-valued?

Valuing Sonic Automotive stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Sonic Automotive's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Sonic Automotive's P/E ratio

Sonic Automotive's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 8x. In other words, Sonic Automotive shares trade at around 8x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Sonic Automotive's PEG ratio

Sonic Automotive's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 0.4027. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Sonic Automotive's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Sonic Automotive's EBITDA

Sonic Automotive's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$370 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Sonic Automotive's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Sonic Automotive financials

Revenue TTM	USD$9.9 billion
Operating margin TTM	2.8%
Gross profit TTM	USD$1.5 billion
Return on assets TTM	4.48%
Return on equity TTM	-11.44%
Profit margin	-0.94%
Book value	$17.321
Market capitalisation	USD$1.7 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Sonic Automotive shares

There are currently 3.5 million Sonic Automotive shares held short by investors – that's known as Sonic Automotive's "short interest". This figure is 6.7% down from 3.7 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Sonic Automotive shares can be evaluated.

Sonic Automotive's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Sonic Automotive's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Sonic Automotive shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Sonic Automotive shares traded daily (recently around 334149.47468959). Sonic Automotive's SIR currently stands at 10.47. In other words for every 100,000 Sonic Automotive shares traded daily on the market, roughly 10470 shares are currently held short.

However Sonic Automotive's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Sonic Automotive shares, or, against the total number of tradable Sonic Automotive shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Sonic Automotive's short interest could be expressed as 0.08% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Sonic Automotive shares in existence, roughly 80 shares are currently held short) or 0.1815% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Sonic Automotive shares, roughly 182 shares are currently held short).

A SIR above 10% would generally be considered pretty high, pointing to a potentially pessimistic outlook for the share price and a discouraging interest in betting against Sonic Automotive.

Find out more about how you can short Sonic Automotive stock.

Sonic Automotive share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 14.93% of net profits

Recently Sonic Automotive has paid out, on average, around 14.93% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 1.01% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Sonic Automotive shareholders could enjoy a 1.01% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Sonic Automotive's case, that would currently equate to about $0.4 per share.

While Sonic Automotive's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that Sonic Automotive is investing more in its future growth.

Sonic Automotive's most recent dividend payout was on 15 October 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 14 September 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Sonic Automotive's shares ever split?

Sonic Automotive's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 26 January 1999. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Sonic Automotive shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Sonic Automotive shares which in turn could have impacted Sonic Automotive's share price.

Sonic Automotive share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Sonic Automotive's shares have ranged in value from as little as $9 up to $46.84. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Sonic Automotive's is 2.7678. This would suggest that Sonic Automotive's shares are significantly more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent a higher risk.

Sonic Automotive overview

Sonic Automotive, Inc. operates as an automotive retailer in the United States. It operates in two segments, Franchised Dealerships and EchoPark. The Franchised Dealerships segment is involved in the sale of new and used cars and light trucks, and replacement parts; provision of vehicle maintenance, manufacturer warranty repair, and paint and collision repair services; and arrangement of extended warranties, service contracts, financing, insurance, and other aftermarket products. The EchoPark segment sells used cars and light trucks; and arranges finance and insurance product sales in pre-owned vehicle specialty retail locations. As of December 31, 2019, the company operated 99 new vehicle franchises representing 21 brands of cars and light trucks; 15 collision repair centers in 12 states; and 9 EchoPark stores. Sonic Automotive, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Sonic Automotive is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 25.717% of Sonic Automotive shares are held by insiders and 87.016% by institutions.

• How many people work for Sonic Automotive?

  Latest data suggests 9,300 work at Sonic Automotive.

• When does the fiscal year end for Sonic Automotive?

  Sonic Automotive's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Sonic Automotive based?

  Sonic Automotive's address is: 4401 Colwick Road, Charlotte, NC, United States, 28211

• What is Sonic Automotive's ISIN number?

  Sonic Automotive's international securities identification number is: US83545G1022

• What is Sonic Automotive's CUSIP number?

  Sonic Automotive's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 83545G102