Auto Trader Group plc

LSE:AUTO Stock Report

Market Cap: UK£7.2b

Auto Trader Group Valuation

Is AUTO undervalued compared to its fair value, analyst forecasts and its price relative to the market?

Valuation Score

2/6

Valuation Score 2/6

  • Below Fair Value

  • Significantly Below Fair Value

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Peers

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Industry

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio

  • Analyst Forecast

Share Price vs Fair Value

What is the Fair Price of AUTO when looking at its future cash flows? For this estimate we use a Discounted Cash Flow model.

Below Fair Value: AUTO (£8.07) is trading below our estimate of fair value (£8.15)

Significantly Below Fair Value: AUTO is trading below fair value, but not by a significant amount.

Key Valuation Metric

Which metric is best to use when looking at relative valuation for AUTO?

Key metric: As AUTO is profitable we use its Price-To-Earnings Ratio for relative valuation analysis.

The above table shows the Price to Earnings ratio for AUTO. This is calculated by dividing AUTO's market cap by their current earnings.
What is AUTO's PE Ratio?
PE Ratio25.7x
EarningsUK£279.70m
Market CapUK£7.19b

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Peers

How does AUTO's PE Ratio compare to its peers?

The above table shows the PE ratio for AUTO vs its peers. Here we also display the market cap and forecasted growth for additional consideration.
CompanyForward PEEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
Peer Average39.6x
RMV Rightmove
26.7x7.7%UK£5.3b
TRST Trustpilot Group
94.4x-0.2%UK£1.3b
MONY MONY Group
13.9x8.6%UK£1.1b
NWOR National World
23.4x58.1%UK£56.2m
AUTO Auto Trader Group
25.7x8.0%UK£7.2b

Price-To-Earnings vs Peers: AUTO is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (25.7x) compared to the peer average (39.6x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Industry

How does AUTO's PE Ratio compare vs other companies in the European Interactive Media and Services Industry?

1 CompanyPrice / EarningsEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
AUTO 25.7xIndustry Avg. 14.6xNo. of Companies6PE01224364860+
1 CompanyEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
No more companies

Price-To-Earnings vs Industry: AUTO is expensive based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (25.7x) compared to the European Interactive Media and Services industry average (14.9x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Fair Ratio

What is AUTO's PE Ratio compared to its Fair PE Ratio? This is the expected PE Ratio taking into account the company's forecast earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors.

AUTO PE Ratio vs Fair Ratio.
Fair Ratio
Current PE Ratio25.7x
Fair PE Ratio23.5x

Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio: AUTO is expensive based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (25.7x) compared to the estimated Fair Price-To-Earnings Ratio (23.5x).

Analyst Price Targets

What is the analyst 12-month forecast and do we have any statistical confidence in the consensus price target?

The above table shows the analyst AUTO forecast and predictions for the stock price in 12 month’s time.
DateShare PriceAverage 1Y Price TargetDispersionHighLow1Y Actual priceAnalysts
CurrentUK£8.07
UK£8.47
+5.0%
12.4%UK£10.40UK£6.50n/a19
Dec ’25UK£8.39
UK£8.37
-0.2%
13.0%UK£10.40UK£6.50n/a19
Nov ’25UK£8.44
UK£8.55
+1.3%
13.7%UK£10.40UK£6.50n/a18
Oct ’25UK£8.68
UK£8.41
-3.1%
12.8%UK£10.00UK£6.50n/a18
Sep ’25UK£8.51
UK£8.23
-3.3%
13.9%UK£10.00UK£6.20n/a18
Aug ’25UK£8.11
UK£8.19
+1.0%
14.6%UK£10.00UK£6.20n/a18
Jul ’25UK£7.97
UK£8.10
+1.6%
14.1%UK£10.00UK£6.20n/a18
Jun ’25UK£8.16
UK£7.73
-5.3%
14.7%UK£10.00UK£6.20n/a20
May ’25UK£7.02
UK£7.42
+5.7%
12.6%UK£9.00UK£6.08n/a20
Apr ’25UK£7.00
UK£7.33
+4.7%
12.5%UK£9.00UK£6.08n/a20
Mar ’25UK£7.47
UK£7.24
-3.2%
12.6%UK£9.00UK£6.13n/a19
Feb ’25UK£7.31
UK£7.23
-1.2%
12.5%UK£9.00UK£6.13n/a19
Jan ’25UK£7.21
UK£7.16
-0.7%
10.9%UK£8.63UK£6.13n/a20
Dec ’24UK£7.21
UK£7.10
-1.6%
11.1%UK£8.63UK£5.60UK£8.3920
Nov ’24UK£6.19
UK£6.89
+11.2%
10.0%UK£8.36UK£5.55UK£8.4418
Oct ’24UK£6.18
UK£6.91
+11.8%
9.9%UK£8.36UK£5.55UK£8.6819
Sep ’24UK£6.07
UK£6.74
+11.0%
10.8%UK£7.91UK£4.73UK£8.5121
Aug ’24UK£6.51
UK£6.74
+3.5%
10.8%UK£7.91UK£4.73UK£8.1121
Jul ’24UK£6.10
UK£6.78
+11.1%
9.7%UK£7.73UK£4.73UK£7.9722
Jun ’24UK£6.09
UK£6.55
+7.5%
13.3%UK£7.73UK£4.05UK£8.1622
May ’24UK£6.36
UK£6.57
+3.3%
11.7%UK£7.73UK£4.05UK£7.0221
Apr ’24UK£6.16
UK£6.50
+5.4%
12.3%UK£7.70UK£4.05UK£7.0021
Mar ’24UK£5.92
UK£6.50
+9.8%
12.3%UK£7.70UK£4.05UK£7.4721
Feb ’24UK£6.15
UK£6.49
+5.5%
11.9%UK£7.70UK£4.41UK£7.3121
Jan ’24UK£5.16
UK£6.32
+22.7%
11.0%UK£7.70UK£4.41UK£7.2122
Dec ’23UK£5.77
UK£6.23
+8.0%
12.5%UK£7.70UK£4.41UK£7.2123

Analyst Forecast: Target price is less than 20% higher than the current share price.

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Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

DataLast Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis2024/12/17 07:23
End of Day Share Price 2024/12/17 00:00
Earnings2024/09/30
Annual Earnings2024/03/31

Data Sources

The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.

PackageDataTimeframeExample US Source *
Company Financials10 years
  • Income statement
  • Cash flow statement
  • Balance sheet
Analyst Consensus Estimates+3 years
  • Forecast financials
  • Analyst price targets
Market Prices30 years
  • Stock prices
  • Dividends, Splits and Actions
Ownership10 years
  • Top shareholders
  • Insider trading
Management10 years
  • Leadership team
  • Board of directors
Key Developments10 years
  • Company announcements

* example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.

Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more here.

Analysis Model and Snowflake

Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.

Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Industry and Sector Metrics

Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on .

Analyst Sources

Auto Trader Group plc is covered by 31 analysts. 17 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.

AnalystInstitution
Andrew RossBarclays
Ciaran DonnellyBerenberg
Kurran AujlaBerenberg