Auto Trader Group PLC (LON:AUTO) Share Price Near 52‑Week Low Despite Strong Results

Published: 4 December 2025

Auto Trader Group PLC’s share price has slid to the bottom of its 12‑month range even as the company reports solid earnings, robust margins and ongoing share buybacks. That tension between strong fundamentals and a weak chart is the central story for investors watching LON:AUTO this week.

Share price today: trading close to the 52‑week floor

On 4 December 2025, Auto Trader Group PLC is trading around 611p per share, down roughly 1.8% on the day, with an intraday range of about 607p–623p. The stock’s 52‑week range runs from approximately 607p to 920p, meaning shares are now hovering right at their annual low and more than a third below their peak. ^[1]

Earlier this week, MarketWatch reported that Auto Trader closed at £6.21 on Tuesday, 2 December, leaving the stock about 32.5% below its 52‑week high of £9.20 set in May. ^[2]

There has also been pressure in overseas trading: on the U.S. OTC market, the ADR (ticker ATDRY) hit a new 52‑week low near $2.03–2.04 on 2 December, with analysts there describing sentiment as negative and flagging downward technical momentum. ^[3]

In London, a separate MarketBeat alert on 1 December highlighted that Auto Trader’s LSE line (AUTO) had set a new 12‑month low following an analyst downgrade, and noted a price/earnings ratio of about 20x and a beta under 0.8 – signals of a quality, lower‑volatility stock that has nevertheless been de‑rated. ^[4]

So the headline for 4 December is clear: fundamentally profitable, structurally important to UK car trading… and currently priced like something out of favour.

Fresh news: heavy share buybacks and a dealer backlash

Aggressive share repurchases in early December

Management is leaning into the weakness with a very visible buyback.

Regulatory filings show that:

On 1 December 2025, Auto Trader repurchased 550,000 shares at an average price of about 636.98p per share. ^[5]
On 3 December 2025, it bought a further 600,000 shares at an average price of about 621.41p, with trades ranging between roughly 616p and 625p. ^[6]

Across just the first three days of December, the company has therefore retired over 1.1 million shares, as part of a longer‑running capital return programme that also includes substantial dividends.

TipRanks’ summary of the latest buyback framed it explicitly as an effort to “optimise capital structure” and potentially enhance shareholder value by reducing shares outstanding, while also noting that the platform’s AI‑based analysis currently reads the technical picture as bearish even as fundamentals look strong. ^[7]

In other words: the board is buying, but the market is still selling.

“Deal Builder” backlash and attempts to rebuild trust

At the same time, Auto Trader finds itself in a very public dispute with some of its core customers – UK car dealers.

Over the past few weeks:

The Sun reported that, according to a survey by the Independent Motor Dealer Association (IMDA), 165 dealers have cancelled or given notice on their Auto Trader contracts, and around 70% of 700 members have downgraded or cut back packages, in protest at the platform’s mandatory “Deal Builder” product. ^[8]
Specialist blog OnlyVans described a “revolt” in which at least 59 dealers had fully cancelled and more than 180 had downgraded their packages, citing concerns over Deal Builder’s impact on stock management and the sales process. ^[9]
Trade outlet AM‑Online and the AIM Group have covered Auto Trader’s attempts to respond, noting that the company has rolled the tool out to all UK dealers and is now publicly acknowledging dealer concerns, while insisting the product is designed to enhance the buying experience rather than undermine dealers. ^[10]

Deal Builder allows consumers to reserve vehicles online for a £99 fee, temporarily taking them off the market. Dealers complain that this creates operational headaches and potential reputational risk if a reservation cannot be honoured; Auto Trader argues that online reservations are becoming standard and that dealers will benefit from more committed leads.

On 3 December, Car Dealer Magazine reported that Auto Trader is now creating formal Customer Advisory Groups for both independent and franchise retailers, with first sessions scheduled in London and Manchester later this month. The stated aim: more “open and transparent dialogue” and a way to repair what the article describes as a “fractured relationship” with portions of the dealer base. ^[11]

So while the share price is sliding, the company is simultaneously:

Buying back shares aggressively, signalling confidence; and
Working to defuse a customer‑relationship crisis that could, if mishandled, impair future growth.

Recent results: margins still exceptional, AI tools scaling

Behind the headlines, the numbers remain strikingly strong.

Auto Trader’s half‑year results for the six months to 30 September 2025 (H1 2026 financial year) show: ^[12]

Group revenue up 5% to £317.7m (from £302.5m).
Group operating profit up 6% to £200.1m.
Basic earnings per share up 11% year‑on‑year.
Operating margin at group level rising to 63%, with the core Auto Trader marketplace sustaining around 70% margins – a level most platforms can only envy.
Losses at leasing arm Autorama roughly halved year‑on‑year.

Operational indicators were equally robust:

Auto Trader still accounts for over 75% of the minutes spent on UK automotive marketplaces.
Monthly cross‑platform visits ticked up to about 83.3 million, with time spent on the platform broadly flat.
Average retailer forecourts rose about 1% to just over 14,000, and average revenue per retailer per month (ARPR) climbed around 5% to £2,994. ^[13]

A significant theme in both the interim report and subsequent commentary is AI‑driven product development:

The company’s Co‑Driver product, which helps dealers automatically generate and optimise listings, has been used by over 10,000 customers to improve more than 1 million vehicle adverts, according to management. ^[14]
Deal Builder itself is part of a push to streamline the end‑to‑end online purchase process, even if the current backlash shows the cultural and operational friction that change can generate.

The board reiterated that full‑year guidance remains unchanged, signalling that management sees no need to cut expectations despite macroeconomic uncertainty in the used‑car market and the controversy around new tools. ^[15]

Full‑year 2025: high growth, very high margins

Stepping back, Auto Trader’s most recent full‑year numbers (year ended 31 March 2025) underline why many investors have historically treated the stock as a high‑quality compounder:

Revenue of about £601.1m, up 5.3% year‑on‑year.
Net income of roughly £282.6m, implying a net margin in the high‑40% range – unusually high for a listed marketplace business. ^[16]

Analysis from Simply Wall St and others highlights that over the past five years:

Earnings per share have grown around 16% per year,
While the share price has grown only about 4% per year, and
Total shareholder return (TSR) over five years is about 28%, thanks to the contribution from dividends and buybacks. ^[17]

However, the last 12 months tell a different story: the same analysis notes that shareholders have lost roughly 18% including dividends, compared with an approximate 20% gain in the broader UK market, underlining how sentiment has soured despite continuing earnings growth. ^[18]

Put another way: profits and cash flow have climbed steadily; the market’s willingness to pay up for those profits has not.

Analyst forecasts and valuation as of 4 December 2025

Street rating: “Hold” with upside to fair value

MarketBeat’s dedicated forecast page for LON:AUTO shows: ^[19]

A consensus rating of “Hold”, based on ratings from three analysts in the last 12 months:
- 1 Buy,
- 1 Hold,
- 1 Sell.
A 12‑month average price target of about 781.7p, with a range from 635p (bearish) to 880p (bullish).
Based on a current price around 610p, that implies roughly 28% upside to the average target.

TipRanks, which tracks a broader universe of brokers, also notes a recent Buy rating with an 880p target, alongside a more cautious Sell at 635p – again pointing to a spread of opinion, but clustered in a range that is materially above the current share price. ^[20]

Growth expectations: solid, not spectacular

Simply Wall St’s latest future‑growth model, updated on 4 December 2025, aggregates estimates from around 15 analysts and suggests: ^[21]

Earnings growth of about 7.5% per year over the next several years.
Revenue growth of about 6.4% per year.
Forecast EPS growth near 9.8% annually.
A projected return on equity of ~54.7% in three years’ time – still extremely high by market standards.

The same framework notes that earnings and revenue are expected to grow more slowly than the broader global media/online services sector, but comfortably ahead of “risk‑free” savings rates. That’s the classic profile of a mature, dominant platform: high margin, high ROE, but not hyper‑growth.

Why is the stock so weak? Key risks and pressure points

Given that backdrop, why is the share price hugging its lows?

Based on recent coverage and disclosures, several factors seem to be weighing on sentiment:

Customer‑relationship risk with dealers
- The Deal Builder backlash is not just noise: multiple sources report organised cancellations, package downgrades and highly vocal criticism in dealer forums and on social media. ^[22]
- Auto Trader says the absolute cancellation numbers are much lower than some survey figures and stresses that the rollout will continue, but trust with a part of the dealer base has plainly been damaged – something the new Customer Advisory Groups are meant to address.
Cyclical and structural pressures in the used‑car market
- Volumes and stock mix have been volatile in the wake of pandemic‑era supply distortions and higher interest rates.
- In its H1 results, Auto Trader flagged softness in some consumer‑facing revenue lines, particularly private listings, and acknowledged that cars have been taking longer to sell in recent months. ^[23]
Valuation de‑rating from “high‑quality growth” to “normal good business”
- With a trailing P/E around 20x and growth expected in the mid‑single digits, the stock no longer fits neatly into the “high‑growth tech” bucket many investors once placed it in. ^[24]
- As global investors rotate into higher‑growth or higher‑yielding names, a highly profitable but slower‑growing UK‑listed marketplace can simply drift down the preference list – and price follows flows.
Technical and momentum headwinds
- Shares are trading near their 52‑week low in both London and New York; various services flag a “Sell” or “negative” technical rating, reflecting broken support levels and downward‑sloping moving averages. ^[25]

Put together, this looks less like a story of collapsing fundamentals and more like a trust and sentiment problem layered on top of a derating.

What to watch from here: 2026 outlook

For investors and observers tracking Auto Trader into 2026, a few markers stand out:

Dealer relations and Deal Builder adoption
- How quickly do the new Customer Advisory Groups translate into concrete changes or improvements to Deal Builder?
- Do cancellation and downgrade numbers stabilise, or does the protest spread to larger franchise groups?
Continuation and scale of buybacks
- The company has already retired well over 1 million shares in early December alone. ^[26]
- If free cash flow remains strong and buybacks continue at this pace, earnings per share could grow faster than operating profit, even in a modest revenue environment.
Execution on AI‑enabled products
- Co‑Driver and related AI tools are becoming core to Auto Trader’s pitch to dealers: higher‑quality listings, better conversion, more efficient operations.
- The key question is whether dealers ultimately feel that value – especially as prices for packages continue to rise.
Macro environment for used‑car demand
- Interest rates, consumer confidence and the pace of electric‑vehicle adoption all feed into used‑car pricing and stock turnover.
- Auto Trader doesn’t take inventory risk, but its revenue is tightly linked to dealers’ willingness to pay for digital reach in a tougher market.
Analyst revisions
- With the share price now well below the average target, further downgrades or, conversely, fresh “buy the dip” calls could shift the narrative. ^[27]

Bottom line

As of 4 December 2025, Auto Trader Group PLC is a paradox in plain sight:

A high‑margin, cash‑rich, market‑leading platform with double‑digit EPS growth and extremely high returns on equity; ^[28]
A share price at or near a 12‑month low, down more than 30% from its peak; ^[29]
A consensus analyst stance of “Hold”, with targets suggesting meaningful upside from today’s levels if execution continues. ^[30]

Whether that gap between price and fundamentals represents opportunity, a warning sign, or a bit of both will depend heavily on how the company navigates dealer relations, continues to innovate, and maintains its enviable economics in a changing automotive market.