Sonic Automotive vs Valvoline
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The short version
- Sonic Automotive is the larger business, with $15.2B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $1.7B for Valvoline, about 8.9 times as much.
- Sonic Automotive grew revenue faster (6.5%, against 5.6%).
- Valvoline kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (22.8% operating margin, against 2.4%).
- Sonic Automotive turned more of its sales into free cash flow (2.8% FCF margin, against 2.2%).
- Valvoline earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (18.9%, against 12.2%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Valvoline’s earnings: a P/E of 39.5x against 9.8x for Sonic Automotive.
| Latest fiscal year | SAH · FY25 | VVV · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $2.0B | $4.1B |
| Revenue | $15.2B | $1.7B |
| Free cash flow | $418M | $38.0M |
| Net income | $119M | $211M |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 6.5% | 5.6% |
| 5-year growth | 9.2% | 18.7% |
| Share count change | −0.9% | −1.8% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 15.7% | 38.5% |
| Operating margin | 2.4% | 22.8% |
| Net margin | 0.8% | 12.3% |
| FCF margin | 2.8% | 2.2% |
| Return on capital | 12.2% | 18.9% |
| Return on equity | 11.1% | 80.4% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $2.0B | $1.3B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 3.7x | 2.5x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $131M | $76.8M |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 9.8x | 39.5x |
| Piotroski F-score | 6 | 7 |
Revenue
FY16
SAH $9.7B
VVV $1.9B
FY17
SAH $9.9B
VVV $2.1B
FY18
SAH $10.0B
VVV $2.3B
FY19
SAH $10.5B
VVV $2.4B
FY20
SAH $9.8B
VVV $727M
FY21
SAH $12.4B
VVV $1.0B
FY22
SAH $14.0B
VVV $1.2B
FY23
SAH $14.4B
VVV $1.4B
FY24
SAH $14.2B
VVV $1.6B
FY25
SAH $15.2B
VVV $1.7B
SAH
VVV
Operating margin
FY16
SAH 2.4%
VVV 20.5%
FY17
SAH 2.1%
VVV 18.9%
FY18
SAH 1.8%
VVV 17.3%
FY19
SAH 2.9%
VVV 16.7%
FY20
SAH 0.4%
VVV 22.0%
FY21
SAH 4.3%
VVV 23.2%
FY22
SAH 2.2%
VVV 17.8%
FY23
SAH 3.0%
VVV 17.1%
FY24
SAH 3.2%
VVV 22.7%
FY25
SAH 2.4%
VVV 22.8%
SAH
VVV
Free cash flow
FY16
SAH $10.1M
VVV $245M
FY17
SAH −$71.4M
VVV −$198M
FY18
SAH −$19.9M
VVV $227M
FY19
SAH $45.2M
VVV $217M
FY20
SAH $154M
VVV $278M
FY21
SAH $8.1M
VVV $301M
FY22
SAH $179M
VVV $152M
FY23
SAH −$219M
VVV −$221M
FY24
SAH −$78.1M
VVV $40.7M
FY25
SAH $418M
VVV $38.0M
SAH
VVV
Return on capital
FY16
SAH 9.0%
VVV —
FY17
SAH 10.8%
VVV 46.7%
FY18
SAH 6.9%
VVV 23.6%
FY19
SAH 13.0%
VVV 34.8%
FY20
SAH 1.7%
VVV 8.1%
FY21
SAH 20.7%
VVV 11.7%
FY22
SAH 6.1%
VVV 8.3%
FY23
SAH 11.4%
VVV 12.2%
FY24
SAH 13.5%
VVV 20.8%
FY25
SAH 12.2%
VVV 18.9%
SAH
VVV
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.