Cars.com (CARS) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Cars.com Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a digital automotive marketplace that connects local car dealers to consumers in the United States. The company offers a suite of digital solutions that creates connections between individuals researching cars or looking to purchase a car with car dealerships and automotive original equipment manufacturers. It also sells online subscription advertising products to car dealerships by its direct sales force, as well as through its affiliate sales channel. In addition, the company sells display advertising to national advertisers. Further, it offers online automotive marketplace service that connects buyers and sellers through Cars.com, Auto.com, DealerRater.com, NewCars.com, PickupTrucks.com, DealerInspire.com, and LaunchDigitalMarketing.com Websites. Its platform hosts approximately 4.9 million new and used vehicle listings and serves approximately 20,000 franchise and independent car dealers. Cars.com Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $13.04 to $13.47
• 50-Day Range: $11.19 to $13.48
• 52-Week Range: $9.56 to $20.47
• Volume: 619,575 shs
• Average Volume: 960,221 shs
• Market Capitalization: $804.44 million
• P/E Ratio: 21.12
• Dividend Yield: N/A
• Price Target: $17.30
• Consensus Rating: Buy

Cars.com Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Cars.com scored higher than 89% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 36th out of 214 stocks in the retail/wholesale sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 4.5 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Buy

Consensus Rating

Cars.com has received a consensus rating of Buy. The company's average rating score is 3.00, and is based on 4 buy ratings, 1 hold rating, and no sell ratings.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Cars.com has been the subject of 5 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 3.1 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 39.50%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Cars.com are expected to grow by 39.50% in the coming year, from $1.19 to $1.66 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Cars.com is 21.12, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 28.75.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Cars.com is 21.12, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Retail/Wholesale sector average P/E ratio of about 27.56.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Cars.com has a P/B Ratio of 1.67. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 1.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Bearish

Percentage of Shares Shorted

8.87% of the float of Cars.com has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Cars.com has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 5.7.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Cars.com has recently increased by 3.36%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing.

Dividend

• Score: 0.0 / 5
• Dividend Strength: N/A

Dividend Yield

Cars.com does not currently pay a dividend.

Dividend Growth

Cars.com does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

Sustainability and ESG

• Score: N/A
• Environmental Score: N/A

Percentage of Shares Shorted

8.87% of the float of Cars.com has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Cars.com has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 5.7.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Cars.com has recently increased by 3.36%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.9 / 5
• News Sentiment: 1.11

News Sentiment

Cars.com has a news sentiment score of 1.11. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.99 average news sentiment score of Retail/Wholesale companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 11 news articles for Cars.com this week, compared to 8 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

2 people have searched for CARS on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 100% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

3 people have added Cars.com to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Cars.com insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $176,550.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

Only 2.39% of the stock of Cars.com is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

89.15% of the stock of Cars.com is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

CARS Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have CARS shares performed this year?

Cars.com's stock was trading at $17.33 on January 1st, 2025. Since then, CARS shares have decreased by 24.5% and is now trading at $13.0920.

How were Cars.com's earnings last quarter?

Cars.com Inc. (NYSE:CARS) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August, 7th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.04. Cars.com's revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year.
Read the conference call transcript.

Does Cars.com have any subsidiaries?

The following companies are subsidiaries of Cars.com: CreditIQ, Dealer Inspire, Launch Digital Marketing, DealerRater, PickupTrucks.com, Cars.com LLC, CreditIQ LLC, and more.

Who are Cars.com's major shareholders?

Top institutional shareholders of Cars.com include Hill Path Capital LP (3.28%), Brown Advisory Inc. (2.26%), Geode Capital Management LLC (2.16%) and Par Capital Management Inc. (1.95%). Insiders that own company stock include Thomas Alex Vetter, Sonia Jain, Douglas Neal Miller, Angelique Strong Marks, Jill A Greenthal, Matthew B Crawford, Jr Donald A Mcgovern, Bryan Wiener and Thomas E Hale.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of Cars.com?

Shares of CARS stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

What other stocks do shareholders of Cars.com own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Cars.com investors own include Humana (HUM), American Water Works (AWK), Waste Connections (WCN), DiamondRock Hospitality (DRH), The RMR Group (RMR), AU Optronics (AUOTY) and Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR).

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 8/07/2025
• Today: 8/29/2025
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 11/06/2025
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2025

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Retail/Wholesale
• Industry: INTERNET COMMERCE
• Sub-Industry: Business Services
• Current Symbol: NYSE:CARS
• Previous Symbol: NASDAQ:CARS
• CIK: 1683606
• Web: www.cars.com
• Phone: 312-601-5000
• Fax: 312-601-5755
• Employees: 1,800
• Year Founded: 1998

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Cars.com: $17.30
• High Price Target: $25.00
• Low Price Target: $11.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +32.1%
• Consensus Rating: Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 3.00
• Research Coverage: 6 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $0.62
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 21.12
• Forward P/E Ratio: 11.00
• P/E Growth: N/A
• Net Income: $48.19 million
• Net Margins: 5.71%
• Pretax Margin: 7.44%
• Return on Equity: 17.43%
• Return on Assets: 7.91%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.94
• Current Ratio: 1.82
• Quick Ratio: 1.82

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $717.85 million
• Price / Sales: 1.12
• Cash Flow: $3.07 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 4.26
• Book Value: $7.86 per share
• Price / Book: 1.67

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 61,445,000
• Free Float: 59,976,000
• Market Cap: $804.44 million
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 1.76