profit from every $100 of sales.
$0$100
Cars.com
$12.71-1.09% today
+9.9% in 1 year
1-year low $7.581-year high $13.56
Trading close to its highest price of the past year.
The essentials
Four questions every investor asks, answered in one line each.
more sales each year, on average, 2022 to 2025.
0%20% a year
You pay $33.01 for every $1 of profit it makes in a year.
CheapExpensive
of earnings would pay off all its debt.
No debt5 years
Money in, money out
What Cars.com sold, what it kept, and what it did with the cash.
Sales went from $654 million in 2022 to $723 million in 2025, with $20.1 million of profit last year.
SalesProfit
Cars.com handed back 69% of the cash it generated last year.
Buybacks $87M
Free cash flow 2025$126M
Bought back its own shares$87M
Paid as dividends–
Cash vs. debt$56M vs. $452M
Cars.com vs. similar companies
Cars.com grows the slowest of these 5 and is the most expensive for its profits.
| Company | Profit from $100 of sales | Sales growth a year | Price per $1 of profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cars.com | 33.0× · Expensive | ||
 Penske Automotive Group | 14.9× · Cheap | ||
 CarMax | 30.5× · Expensive | ||
 Lithia Motors | 7.8× · Cheap | ||
 Rush Enterprises | 19.9× · Fair price |
AI analysis
An AI analyst reads Cars.com's last five years, its segments, earnings, insiders and peers, and writes the bull case, the bear case and what the price expects.
Run the AI analysisFull statementsIncome, balance sheet and cash flow, year by year
Income statement
| In millions of USD | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 654 | 689 | 719 | 723 | |
| 539 | 567 | 595 | 600 | |
| 66 | 54 | 53 | 60 | |
| 152 | 152 | 201 | 157 | |
| 17 | 118 | 48 | 20 | |
| 0.25 | 1.74 | 0.72 | 0.32 | |
| 82.4% | 82.3% | 82.7% | 82.9% | |
| 10.1% | 7.9% | 7.4% | 8.3% | |
| 2.6% | 17.2% | 6.7% | 2.8% |
Balance sheet
| In millions of USD | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total assets | 1,025 | 1,172 | 1,112 | 1,062 |
| Cash | 32 | 39 | 51 | 56 |
| Total debt | 472 | 483 | 455 | 452 |
| Total liabilities | 640 | 680 | 600 | 590 |
| 384 | 492 | 511 | 473 | |
| 70 | 68 | 67 | 63 | |
| 5.3% | 4.1% | 7.7% | 5.5% | |
| 4.5% | 24.1% | 9.4% | 4.2% |
Cash flow
| In millions of USD | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 129 | 137 | 153 | 152 | |
| 20 | 21 | 24 | 26 | |
| 109 | 116 | 128 | 126 | |
| Dividends paid | – | – | – | – |
| 49 | 31 | 49 | 87 | |
| 22 | 28 | 31 | 31 |
Valuation
- 33.0×
- 6.0×
- 3.85
- 1.4×
- 0.9×
- 5.3×
- 6.8×
- 19.0%
- 3.0%
- 0.0%
Profitability
- 82.9%
- 8.3%
- 2.8%
- 21.6%
- 4.6%
- 4.5%
- 5.7%
- 2.6%
- 7.5%
- 4.0%
Growth
- +3.4%
- +8.6%
- −1.5%
- –
- −4.3%
Financial health
- 2.5×
- 0.98
- 42.9%
- 4.5×
- 1.87
- 1.87
- 0.69
How it ranks in Consumer Discretionary
Each dot is where the company stands among every company over $300M in the sector. Further right is better.
Bottom 27%of 976
Top 50%of 992
Bottom 28%of 852
Bottom 30%of 992
Top 7%of 979
What analysts expect
- Average price target
- $13.00
- Range
- $13.00 – $13.00
These targets were collected on May 20, 2026 and our analyst feed has not updated since, so we no longer compare them with today's price.
Recent earnings
Our results feed has not updated since May 21, 2026. Results reported after that are not in this table yet.
| Date | EPS | Expected | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 7, 2026 | 0.45 | 0.48 | −6.2% |
| Feb 26, 2026 | 0.44 | 0.56 | −21.4% |
| Nov 6, 2025 | 0.48 | 0.50 | −4.0% |
| Aug 7, 2025 | 0.41 | 0.46 | −10.9% |
| May 8, 2025 | 0.37 | 0.39 | −5.1% |
| Feb 27, 2025 | 0.49 | 0.52 | −5.8% |
| Nov 7, 2024 | 0.41 | 0.44 | −6.8% |
| Aug 8, 2024 | 0.38 | 0.47 | −19.1% |
News
Flying Cars, Smart Homes, and Cracks in the AI BoomYahoo Finance · Oct 24, 2026Volvo Cars swings to Q3 loss as revenue falls 22.6% Y/YSeeking Alpha · Oct 23, 2026Tesla’s Flying Roadster Has Wall Street Talking About SpaceX, Not CarsYahoo Finance · Oct 17, 2026Stellantis unveils low-cost electric cars in bid to revive European salesSeeking Alpha · Oct 11, 2026EU plans yearly cap of 350,000 Chinese hybrid cars as trade tensions riseSeeking Alpha · Oct 11, 2026Insider trades
Our insider feed has not updated since May 26, 2026. Trades filed after that are not listed yet.
No insider trades on file.
The seven classic investing rulebooks
0/7Passes 0 of 7. Each bar is how well the company fits that investor's published rules, from 0 to 100; 60 or more counts as a pass.
Warren Buffett
46No pass
Benjamin Graham
58No pass
Philip Fisher
51No pass
Peter Lynch
22No pass
Joel Greenblatt
28No pass
Charlie Munger
35No pass
Terry Smith
34No pass
Questions about Cars.com
Is Cars.com a good stock to buy?
A business with weak numbers, but the price is high. 0 of the 7 famous investors' published rulebooks we apply pass it. Whether it suits you depends on your goals and the price you pay; invest-like never tells anyone to buy or sell. The AI analysis lays out the case for and against. Read the Cars.com AI analysis
What does Cars.com do?
Cars.com Inc. operates as a digital marketplace and provides solutions for the automotive industry. Its platform connects car shoppers with sellers. It is in Auto - Dealerships.
Does Cars.com pay a dividend?
No. Cars.com does not pay a dividend at the moment; in 2025 it returned $86.9 million to shareholders by buying back its own shares.
Is Cars.com stock halal?
No. Cars.com does not pass our halal screen: its debt is 68% of its market value, at or above the 33% limit. How we check
How has Cars.com stock done over the past year?
Up 9.9% over the past twelve months, to $12.71. It traded between $7.58 and $13.56 and is 6.3% below its high.
Who are Cars.com's competitors?
The largest listed companies in the same industry are Penske Automotive Group, CarMax, Lithia Motors and Rush Enterprises. The peers table on this page compares their profit, growth and price with Cars.com's.
Prices: daily closes to Nov 13, 2026. Fundamentals: company reports via invest-like data.