Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Purchases 108,235 Shares of Sonic Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:SAH)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Sonic Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:SAH – Get Rating) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,060,645 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 108,235 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned about 0.05% of Sonic Automotive worth $101,527,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of SAH. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in Sonic Automotive in the first quarter worth about $26,000. UBS Group AG increased its stake in Sonic Automotive by 353.4% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,000 after acquiring an additional 2,315 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of Sonic Automotive by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 5,720 shares of the company’s stock valued at $210,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares during the last quarter. Delphia USA Inc. increased its position in shares of Sonic Automotive by 9.0% during the 1st quarter. Delphia USA Inc. now owns 5,085 shares of the company’s stock valued at $216,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Sonic Automotive during the 3rd quarter valued at $234,000. 52.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on SAH. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Sonic Automotive in a report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Sonic Automotive from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 28th. Benchmark cut their price objective on Sonic Automotive from $71.00 to $58.00 in a report on Monday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Sonic Automotive from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Heath Byrd sold 11,336 shares of Sonic Automotive stock in a transaction on Friday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.02, for a total value of $612,370.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 168,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,108,960.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO Heath Byrd sold 11,336 shares of Sonic Automotive stock in a transaction on Friday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.02, for a total value of $612,370.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 168,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,108,960.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, President Jeff Dyke sold 86,596 shares of Sonic Automotive stock in a transaction on Monday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.80, for a total value of $4,399,076.80. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 814,199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $41,361,309.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 101,432 shares of company stock valued at $5,200,693 over the last quarter. 40.95% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Sonic Automotive Price Performance

NYSE:SAH opened at $40.52 on Monday. Sonic Automotive, Inc. has a one year low of $34.17 and a one year high of $62.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market cap of $1.44 billion, a PE ratio of 63.31 and a beta of 1.82. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $48.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.92.

Sonic Automotive (NYSE:SAH – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.84 by ($0.51). Sonic Automotive had a net margin of 0.27% and a return on equity of 33.13%. The company had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. Sonic Automotive’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Sonic Automotive, Inc. will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sonic Automotive Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.29 per share. This is a boost from Sonic Automotive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 14th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.86%. Sonic Automotive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 175.00%.

Sonic Automotive Profile

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Sonic Automotive, Inc operates as a automotive retailer. Its services include sales of both new and used cars and light trucks, sales of replacement parts and performance of vehicle maintenance, warranty, paint and repair services and arrangement of extended service contracts, financing, insurance, vehicle protection products and other aftermarket products for automotive customers.