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UK's leading online marketplace connecting car buyers with dealers to list and search vehicles for sale.
UK's leading online marketplace connecting car buyers with dealers to list and search vehicles for sale.
Earns almost entirely from monthly packages paid by dealers and car makers for listing stock and reaching buyers, who use the site free; add-ons such as pricing tools and promoted adverts raise what each dealer pays. Income from private sellers and consumer services is small.
In one line: The UK's CarGurus/Cars.com.
Moat: wide (network effects, brand, scale). Dominant two-sided marketplace network effect between dealers and car buyers in the UK.
Headquarters: Manchester, UK · Founded: 1977 · Employees: 1,244
Size Autotrader (AUTO.L) is a United Kingdom Information Technology company (Internet Software/Services) with a market value of $5.68B, the 85th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £555.40 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 12.4%, against +5.9% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — 8th highest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 3.9% over the last twelve months (peer median +9.1%); the operating margin is 62.2% (peer median 21.6%).
Valuation It trades at 14.3× forward earnings against a peer median of 35.0× (3rd cheapest of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about -1% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +19%, so the hurdle is -20 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 39.5 points above its cost of capital (9.1% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 27 May 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £624M | £624M | £601M | £571M | £500M |
| Revenue growth | — | +4% | +5% | +14% | — |
| Gross profit | £471M | £471M | £454M | £421M | £347M |
| EBITDA | £412M | £411M | £394M | £364M | £288M |
| Net income | £294M | £294M | £283M | £257M | £234M |
| Free cash flow | £299M | £299M | £305M | £285M | £264M |
| Capital expenditure | £27.4M | £27.4M | £4.00M | £3.80M | £3.40M |
| Total debt | n/a | £211M | £3.50M | £34.6M | £68.7M |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autotrader AUTO.L | $5.68B | +12% | +4% | 62% | 14.3× | -0.7% |
| CarGurus CARG | $3.01B | -3% | +6% | 26% | 12.1× | 2.7% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | AUTO.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +14.3% | +8.8% | 8th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +12.4% | +5.9% | 8th highest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -27.2% | -25.7% | 10th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +3.9% | +9.1% | 5th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 62.2% | 21.6% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 14.3× | 35.0× | 3rd cheapest of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | -0.7% | 17.7% | 3rd least demanding of 16 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +18.9% | +11.1% | 4th highest of 16 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -19.6 pp | +6.7 pp | least demanding of 16 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +39.5 pp | -3.4 pp | 2nd highest of 16 |
| EV / EBITDA | 10.7× | 17.1× | 3rd cheapest of 11 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.5× | 1.1× | 4th least indebted of 12 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autotrader AUTO.L | United Kingdom | $5.68B | +12% | +4% | 62% | 14.3× | -0.7% | +18.9% |
| Mobility Global MBGL | United States | $5.79B | n/a | +8% | 51% | 13.2× | -6.0% | +8.5% |
| Rightmove RMV.L | United Kingdom | $5.38B | +35% | +7% | 66% | 18.1× | 11.6% | +15.6% |
| Braze BRZE | United States | $5.20B | +111% | +27% | -13% | 57.1× | 27.9% | +37.5% |
| Vend Marketplaces VEND.OL | Norway | $5.11B | -4% | -14% | 29% | 35.2× | 10.7% | -13.2% |
| PB Fintech POLICYBZR.NS | India | $4.74B | -43% | +37% | 7% | 41.0× | n/a | n/a |
| CAR CAR.AX | Australia | $6.85B | -3% | +6% | 38% | 28.5× | 21.8% | +24.0% |
| Scout24 G24.DE | Germany | $6.99B | +19% | +16% | 49% | 22.3× | 10.3% | +12.9% |
| AUTO1 AG1.DE | Germany | $4.34B | -14% | +21% | 1% | 29.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Info Edge India NAUKRI.NS | India | $8.18B | +21% | +13% | 34% | 59.6× | 51.8% | +23.8% |
| SMG Swiss Marketplace SMG.SW | Switzerland | $3.77B | +7% | +13% | 35% | 23.9× | 5.8% | +12.4% |
| Seek SEK.AX | Australia | $3.59B | +8% | +17% | 24% | 25.8× | 17.7% | +11.1% |
| Crisil CRISIL.NS | India | $3.40B | +6% | +24% | 26% | 35.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Mango Excellent Media 300413.SZ | China | $9.77B | +79% | +10% | -3% | 143.0× | 13.1% | -0.3% |
| People PPLI | United States | $3.16B | -4% | -29% | 2% | 38.9× | 36.5% | -2.8% |
| People.cn 603000.SS | China | $2.69B | -15% | 0% | 12% | 77.2× | 28.6% | -0.4% |
| Gartner IT | United States | $12.0B | +20% | 0% | 19% | 11.8× | -4.0% | +9.6% |
| Aditya Birla Sun Life Amc ABSLAMC.NS | India | $2.68B | -19% | +4% | 60% | 23.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Youdao, Inc. Sponsored ADR DAO | United States | $2.50B | +59% | +10% | 4% | 59.4× | 33.6% | +17.6% |
| Shanghai Great Wisdom 601519.SS | China | $2.49B | -18% | +6% | -8% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Winning Health Technology 300253.SZ | China | $2.31B | -19% | +6% | -20% | 351.5× | 18.9% | -1.4% |