Sonic Automotive, Inc. (SAH)

From the record

Sonic Automotive, Inc.'s filings since 2017 show 4 warning events of 3 kinds: a warning not to rely on past financial statements (8-K item 4.02, the latest 2022-10-28); an auditor change (8-K item 4.01, the latest 2023-03-21); a material cybersecurity incident (8-K item 1.05, 2 times, the latest 2024-08-05) (its current reports).

From the record

Sonic Automotive, Inc.'s 10 filed years say what it did: revenue went from $9.7 billion in fiscal 2016 to $15 billion in fiscal 2025, up 5% a year; it rose in 7 of 9 years; the deepest fall was 7% from fiscal 2019 to fiscal 2020; net income was positive in 9 of 10 of those years (its annual reports).

From the record

Over the 3 fiscal years to 2025-12-31, Sonic Automotive, Inc.'s diluted share count shrank about 4.4% a year, and dividends and buybacks returned about 64% of its operating cash flow over 3 years (its filed statements). Its officers and directors filed 5 sales (5 under scheduled 10b5-1 plans) and 0 purchases of their own stock on the open market in the year to 2026-10-16 (their Form 4 filings).

From the record

Return on equity: in the fiscal year ended 2025-12-31, Sonic Automotive, Inc. earned about 11 cents of profit for every dollar of shareholders' money, and gross profitability: its products earned about 40 cents per dollar of everything the company owns. Leverage: it owed about 82 cents per dollar of assets, and net share issuance: its share count shrank 0.9% over the year (the filed statements).

From the record

Sonic Automotive, Inc.'s standing among 21 graded names in its industry family: revenue of $15 billion in fiscal 2025 ranks in the top 47% by size; a net margin of 0.8% ranks in the bottom 36%; revenue growth of 2.7% a year over the last 3 filed years ranks in the top 50% (its annual reports).

From the record

Sonic Automotive, Inc.'s leadership, from its insiders' filings and its current reports: the chief executive on the record is Smith, David Bruton (Chairman and CEO, as filed), filing under that title since 2018-10-01, 8.1 years (top 31% of its family); the 10 officers and directors filing in the last fifteen months have been on the record a median of 15.8 years (top 3%); 5 officer or director changes were reported on Form 8-K since 2023-11-13, against the 10 people in charge now (bottom 39%; fewer changes for each person reads higher) (the Form 4 record, its Form 8-K reports). Years count from a person's first filing in the SEC's data sets, which begin in 2006, so each is a floor.

From the record

Sonic Automotive, Inc.'s room to grow, from the newest filed statements (fiscal 2025): cash of $6 million against debt of $1.6 billion leaves -26.1% of its assets as net cash, bottom 38% of its family; cash from operations less capital spending is 4.7% of revenue (top 34%); a gross margin of 15.7% (bottom 28%) (its annual report).

From the record

Sonic Automotive, Inc.'s growth drivers, from the filed years to fiscal 2025: revenue grew 2.7% a year over the last three filed years against 5% over all 10, slowing (top 26% of its family); the newest year grew 6.5% (top 36%) (its annual reports). Sonic Automotive, Inc. reported 6 product lines in fiscal 2025: Retail New Vehicles at $7.0 billion (47%), Used Vehicles at $4.9 billion (32%), Parts Service and Collision Repair at $2.0 billion (13%), and 3 more; 6 of 6 grew against the year before (its annual report).

From the record

Sonic Automotive, Inc.'s newest year against its own record: revenue of $15 billion in fiscal 2025 came in 5.7% above the $14 billion its prior three years' pace pointed to (top 26% of its family); net income of $119 million against a prior three-year average of $161 million (bottom 40%); a net margin of 0.8% against 1.1% before (top 26%) (its annual reports).