Consumer Cyclicals

Auto Retail

29 investable US stocks · data to Saturday, October 24, 2026

Acquirer's Multiple percentile today39th percentile

Dearer than in 70% of quarters since 1999Its usual range since 1999 is the 24th to 45th percentile (the middle 80% of quarters), with a median of the 34th. Lower is cheaper: the 10th percentile is cheaper than 90% of the investable US market; the 50th is the middle.

Is it cheap because returns are depressed?

The industry is dear against its own past, and returns on assets are in their usual range. Free cash flow yield is in its usual range. A low multiple can be warranted when returns on assets are low, and a high one when they are high, so the multiple reads best next to returns and free cash flow, each against the industry's own history.

Over- or under-earning?

Earning about normally

Return on assets ranks at the 55th percentile of investable US stocks, against a median of the 60th and a low of the 35th since 1999. That is close to its usual level, so today's multiple is about right on a normalized basis. If earnings normalize, the multiple would likely fall: from the 39th percentile today (cheaper than 61% of investable US stocks) to around the 32nd (cheaper than 68% of investable US stocks), judging by where it sat in past quarters when returns were at their usual level. If returns fell to their low, it would be around the 43rd (cheaper than 57% of investable US stocks).

Percentile	Today	Returns normal	Returns at low
Return on assets (higher is better)	55th	60th (median)	35th (low)
Acquirer's Multiple (lower is cheaper)	39th	32nd	43rd

Auto Retail's return on assets as a percentile, quarterly since 1999. The shaded band is its usual range; the dashed line its median.

Percentiles among investable US stocks. Return on assets is operating income over total assets, trailing 12 months. The last two columns show where it sat in past quarters when returns were within 7.5 points of their median (60 quarters) and of their low (5). The past, not a forecast.

Against its own history

Each chart is the industry's median stock as a percentile of all investable US stocks, quarterly since 1999. For the Acquirer's Multiple and debt to equity, lower is better. The shaded band is its usual range (the middle 80% of quarters); the dashed line is its long-run median; the dot is today. Green shading marks the better end of each scale and red the worse, and today's dot takes the colour of where it sits.

Acquirer's MultipleDearer than usualPercentile of enterprise value ÷ operating income: lower is cheaper. Dearer than in 70% of quarters since 1999.

Free cash flow yieldUsual rangePercentile of free cash flow yield: higher is a bigger yield. Higher than in 65% of quarters since 1999.

Shareholder yieldUsual rangeDividends plus buybacks, as a percentile: higher is a bigger yield. Higher than in 60% of quarters since 1999.

Dividend yieldUsual rangePercentile of dividend yield: higher is a bigger yield. Lower than in 59% of quarters since 1999.

Return on assets, 5-yrUsual rangePercentile of five-year return on assets: higher is better. Higher than in 55% of quarters since 1999.

Debt to equityUsual rangePercentile of debt to equity: lower is less debt. More indebted than in 62% of quarters since 1999.

Company sizeUsual rangePercentile of market cap: higher is larger. Larger than in 51% of quarters since 1999.

Auto Retail stocks in the screens today

In today's screens, cheapest first. ● marks one of a screen's 30 tracked picks.

Stock	Screen	Acquirer's Multiple	FCF yield	Shareholder yield

5 more stocks for account holders. Sign up free or log in

Other Consumer Cyclicals industries

Electronics and Entertainment Retail dearer than 51%Apparel and Accessories Retail dearer than 58%Apparel and Accessory Products dearer than 58%Leisure Goods Products dearer than 59%Home Builders and Manufactured Buildings dearer than 66%Other Retail dearer than 66%Consumer Vehicles and Parts dearer than 76%Home Improvement Retail dearer than 76%

Quarterly since 1999 from point-in-time data. Each quarter, every investable US stock (price above $3, market cap above $75M, average daily trading above $850,000, no OTC, ADRs or MLPs) is placed in a percentile (0-100) against all the others on each metric. An industry's value is the median percentile of its stocks. Industries follow FactSet's RBICS classification. Percentiles describe the past; they are not investment advice or a forecast.