Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Nov 9, 2026
Sonic Automotive Inc (SAH)
A forensic read on Sonic Automotive Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
1
Forensic signals
11.1%
ROE
6.5%
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 (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). 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.
Sonic Automotive Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.7, placing it in the Grey zone. 1 forensic signal was flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
9.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 9.9% in the latest fiscal year, against 10.1% in FY2023, having run between 9.9% and 12.2% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $312M in FY2023 and $331M in FY2025, with operating income at 2.9% of revenue in FY2023, 3.2% in FY2024 and 2.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $3.1B in FY2023 to $3.4B in FY2025 (+8%), while the revenue it carried went from $14.4B to $15.2B. Across FY2024–FY2025, $832M went into capital expenditure and acquisitions against $314M of total depreciation and amortisation. The base is struck net of amortisation, write-downs and the current liabilities that fund it, so it moved by less than that spending net of the wear, and this row does not say which of those absorbed the difference. FY2023's operating profit carried a $79M asset write-down that took about 1.9 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $174M asset write-down that took about 4.7 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 2.8 points off the -0.2-point change across FY2023–FY2025. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$15.15B
Revenue Growth YoY+6.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+2.7%
Net Margin0.8%
Free Cash Flow$417.5M
Return on Equity11.1%
Debt / Equity1.51x
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 Sonic Automotive Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?