Asbury Automotive Group Inc (ABG) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Sep 24, 2026
Asbury Automotive Group Inc (ABG)
A forensic read on Asbury Automotive Group Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
6.5
P / E (ttm)
12.6%
ROE
$3.3B
Market cap
4.7%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Asbury Automotive Group Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.9, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+11.7%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +11.7% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by PP&E up +20% against revenue +5% and payables paid down 10% against +5% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 4% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 11.7%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
7.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 7.5% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 10%. The capital base behind it grew +16% across FY2023–FY2025, from $7.4B to $8.5B, while the return fell 2.2 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 10% the older base was already earning.
$16M
FY2023–FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $16M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2023 ($15M), FY2024 ($1M)) — about 2% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$18.00B
Revenue Growth YoY+4.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+10.3%
Net Margin2.7%
Return on Equity12.6%
Debt / Equity0.92x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Asbury Automotive Group Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?