Lithia Motors (LAD)

• Market cap: $9.39B
• 1 day: -1.60%
• 5 days: 4.71%
• 1 month: -4.97%
• 3 months: 11.73%
• 6 months: 30.80%
• Year to date: 1.04%
• 1 year: 22.24%
• 5 years: 145.73%
• 10 years: 332.38%
• Sector: Consumer Discretionary
• Industry: Auto Dealers & Gasoline Stations

About: Lithia Motors is a retailer of new and used vehicles and related services. The company offers over 50 brands of vehicles at nearly 500 stores globally across the US, Canada, and UK. The company has expanded largely through the acquisition of dealerships in smaller regional markets but now seeks to grow in any part of the US and we expect more deals over time in the US and, at times, abroad. Annual revenue in 2023 was $31 billion and we see over $50 billion possible in a few years. The US was 90% of 2023 revenue and the UK second at 6%, the latter should rise to around 20% with the 2024 Pendragon acquisition. In 2023, new-car sales were about 49% of total revenue. Lithia was founded in 1946, went public in 1996, and is the largest US auto dealer. It is based in Medford, Oregon.

Employees: 27,446

Fund manager confidence

Based on 2024 Q3 regulatory filings by fund managers ($100M+ AUM)

82% more call options, than puts

Call options by funds: $105M | Put options by funds: $57.3M

61% more first-time investments, than exits

New positions opened: 82 | Existing positions closed: 51

57% more funds holding in top 10

Funds holding in top 10: 7 [Q2] → 11 (+4) [Q3]

25% more capital invested

Capital invested by funds: $7.12B [Q2] → $8.88B (+$1.76B) [Q3]

7% more funds holding

Funds holding: 373 [Q2] → 399 (+26) [Q3]

1.8% more ownership

Funds ownership: 102.9% [Q2] → 104.7% (+1.8%) [Q3]

4% less repeat investments, than reductions

Existing positions increased: 130 | Existing positions reduced: 135

Research analyst outlook

6 Wall Street Analysts provided 1 year price targets over the past 3 months

• Low target: $346 2% downside
• Avg. target: $403 14% upside
• High target: $450 28% upside

6 analyst ratings

• positive: 5 83%
• neutral: 1 17%
• negative: 0 0%

JP Morgan Rajat Gupta 77% 1-year accuracy 24 / 31 met price target	14% upside $400	Overweight Maintained	17 Jan 2025
Wells Fargo Colin Langan 24% 1-year accuracy 8 / 33 met price target	2% downside $346	Equal-Weight Maintained	15 Jan 2025
Benchmark Michael Ward 64% 1-year accuracy 14 / 22 met price target	14% upside $400	Buy Initiated	8 Jan 2025
Seaport Global Glenn Chin 60% 1-year accuracy 3 / 5 met price target	28% upside $450	Buy Maintained	22 Nov 2024
Guggenheim Ali Faghri 80% 1-year accuracy 4 / 5 met price target	19% upside $418	Buy Maintained	21 Nov 2024