Autotrader Group (AUTO) H2 2025 earnings summary

Executive summary

• Group revenue rose 5% to £601.1m and operating profit increased 8% to £376.8m, with basic EPS up 12% year-over-year.

• Achieved record platform engagement with over 81.6 million monthly visits and 557 million minutes spent, and over 1 billion calls to data services benefiting 90%+ of retailer customers through 120+ technology partners.

• Monetized first features of CoDriver AI suite, with strong engagement from retailers and consumers; digital retailing saw material increases in customers, stock, and deals generated.

• Strategic initiatives included scaling Deal Builder to 2,000 retailers and launching CoDriver AI suite for retailers and buyers.

• Four product development streams: advertising, AT Connect/data products, digital retailing, and CoDriver AI.

Financial highlights

• Group revenue: £601.1m (+5% year-over-year); Auto Trader segment revenue: £564.8m (+7%); Autorama revenue: £36.3m (-12%).

• Group operating profit: £376.8m (+8%); Auto Trader operating margin: 70%; Group margin: 63%.

• Basic EPS: 31.66p (+12%); total dividend per share 10.6p (+10%); cash generated from operations: £399.7m (+5%).

• £275.7m returned to shareholders via buybacks and dividends; proposed final dividend of 7.1p per share.

• Net bank debt: £nil at year-end, down from £30m gross bank debt.

Outlook and guidance

• Retailer revenue growth for FY26 expected at 5%-7%, with improvement anticipated in H2 and into FY27.

• ARPR price lever expected to grow by £90-100, with product lever contributing £70-80; stock lever to remain marginally down but offset by product lever.

• Consumer Services and Manufacturer & Agency revenues to remain broadly consistent; Autorama losses to reduce.

• Group operating profit margins to rise as Autorama losses decrease; Auto Trader margins to remain stable.

• Used car prices stabilizing; speed of sale expected to normalize, supporting revenue growth.