Sonic Automotive (SAH) Competitors

Lithia Motors (NYSE:LAD) and Sonic Automotive (NYSE:SAH) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, community ranking, earnings and risk.

Is LAD or SAH a better dividend stock?

Lithia Motors pays an annual dividend of $2.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Sonic Automotive pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Lithia Motors pays out 7.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sonic Automotive pays out 22.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Lithia Motors has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, LAD or SAH?

Lithia Motors has higher revenue and earnings than Sonic Automotive. Sonic Automotive is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lithia Motors, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lithia Motors	$36.19B	0.21	$802M	$29.68	9.82
Sonic Automotive	$14.22B	0.14	$216M	$6.18	9.50

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of LAD or SAH?

46.9% of Sonic Automotive shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Lithia Motors shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 42.7% of Sonic Automotive shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts recommend LAD or SAH?

Lithia Motors presently has a consensus price target of $365.91, indicating a potential upside of 25.61%. Sonic Automotive has a consensus price target of $74.80, indicating a potential upside of 27.36%. Given Sonic Automotive's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Sonic Automotive is more favorable than Lithia Motors.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lithia Motors	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.64
Sonic Automotive	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the media prefer LAD or SAH?

In the previous week, Lithia Motors had 7 more articles in the media than Sonic Automotive. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Lithia Motors and 4 mentions for Sonic Automotive. Lithia Motors' average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat Sonic Automotive's score of 0.53 indicating that Lithia Motors is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Lithia Motors	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Sonic Automotive	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, LAD or SAH?

Lithia Motors has a beta of 1.61, indicating that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sonic Automotive has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in LAD or SAH?

Lithia Motors received 236 more outperform votes than Sonic Automotive when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.36% of users gave Lithia Motors an outperform vote while only 53.16% of users gave Sonic Automotive an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Lithia Motors	Outperform Votes 497 66.36%	Underperform Votes 252 33.64%
Sonic Automotive	Outperform Votes 261 53.16%	Underperform Votes 230 46.84%

Is LAD or SAH more profitable?

Lithia Motors has a net margin of 2.21% compared to Sonic Automotive's net margin of 1.52%. Sonic Automotive's return on equity of 19.96% beat Lithia Motors' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lithia Motors	2.21%	12.43%	3.53%
Sonic Automotive	1.52%	19.96%	3.43%

Summary

Lithia Motors beats Sonic Automotive on 15 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.