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How to buy Sonic Automotive stock
Own Sonic Automotive stock in just a few minutes.
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 8,100 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$9.8 billion.
How to buy shares in Sonic Automotive
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Decide on how many to buy. 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.
- 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.
What's in this guide?
- SAH shares summary
- Compare share dealing platforms
- Is SAH stock a buy or sell?
- Stock performance over time
- Can I short SAH shares?
- Are SAH shares over-valued?
- Sonic Automotive's financials
- How volatile are SAH shares?
- Does Sonic Automotive pay a dividend?
- Have SAH shares ever split?
- Other common questions
Sonic Automotive share price
Use our graph to track the performance of SAH stocks over time.Sonic Automotive shares at a glance
Information last updated 2021-04-09.
| 52-week range | USD$13.9448 - USD$56.07 |
|---|---|
| 50-day moving average | USD$48.9209 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$43.4052 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$54.17 |
| PE ratio | 8.3837 |
| Dividend yield | USD$0.4 (0.81%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$2.759 |
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The value of any investment can go up or down depending on news, trends and market conditions. We are not investment advisers, so do your own due diligence to understand the risks before you invest.
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.
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.
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 0.4581. 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$391.5 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$9.8 billion |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 3.11% |
| Gross profit TTM | USD$1.4 billion |
| Return on assets TTM | 4.86% |
| Return on equity TTM | -5.76% |
| Profit margin | -0.53% |
| Book value | $19.48 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$2.1 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting Sonic Automotive shares
There are currently 3.2 million Sonic Automotive shares held short by investors – that's known as Sonic Automotive's "short interest". This figure is 3.1% up from 3.1 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 479823.22775264). Sonic Automotive's SIR currently stands at 6.63. In other words for every 100,000 Sonic Automotive shares traded daily on the market, roughly 6630 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 0.176% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Sonic Automotive shares, roughly 176 shares are currently held short).
A SIR below 10% would generally be considered to indicate a fairly optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Sonic Automotive.
Find out more about how you can short Sonic Automotive stock.
Sonic Automotive share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 10.44% of net profits
Recently Sonic Automotive has paid out, on average, around 10.44% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 0.8% 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 0.8% 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 14 April 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 11 March 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have Sonic Automotive's shares ever split?
Sonic Automotive's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 25 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 $13.9448 up to $56.07. 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 2.631. 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, 2020, the company operated 96 new vehicle franchises representing 21 brands of cars and light trucks; 14 collision repair centers in 12 states; and 16 EchoPark stores. Sonic Automotive, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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