Autohome (NYSE:ATHM) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.07 EPS

Autohome (NYSE:ATHM) released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The information services provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.07, FiscalAI reports. Autohome had a net margin of 14.23% and a return on equity of 4.00%. The firm had revenue of $196.12 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.93 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.45 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 26.0% on a year-over-year basis.

Here are the key takeaways from Autohome’s conference call:

• Profitability declined year over year: Q3 operating profit fell to CNY 96 million from CNY 147 million, while adjusted net income dropped to CNY 253 million from CNY 407 million. Gross margin improved to 67.2% from 63.7%, and operating expenses were lower.
• Management expects the auto market to remain under pressure in the near term, forecasting a 20%–25% year-over-year decline in Q4 retail sales. For next year, it cited an industry forecast of 0%–5% growth, with demand increasingly driven by NEVs and replacement purchases.
• Autohome reported steady user growth, with September mobile DAUs up 3.4% year over year to 79.14 million, and said it ranked first in automotive-source citations across six major AI platforms for three consecutive months. It launched its AI service agent and is expanding online-to-offline offerings, although AI has not yet generated revenue at scale.
• The company is expanding transaction services: its online car-purchasing model covered 38 cities and more than 1,700 dealers, while its Good Car franchise network exceeded 170 stores. Used-car sales pilots expanded to six cities, and cross-border transactions have increased monthly since the first export in July, though export volumes remain small.
• Autohome reported CNY 17.65 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and investments, and continued shareholder returns through buybacks and dividends. It had repurchased about $155 million of a newly authorized $400 million program by October 30 and approved an approximately CNY 1 billion cash dividend.

Autohome Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE ATHM traded up $0.03 during trading on Friday, reaching $22.91. The company had a trading volume of 399,931 shares, compared to its average volume of 672,630. Autohome has a twelve month low of $15.57 and a twelve month high of $25.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.64 billion, a PE ratio of 24.37 and a beta of 0.36. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $21.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.04.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Autohome news, CTO Bibo Xiang sold 5,588 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.29, for a total transaction of $29,560.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 56,780 shares in the company, valued at $300,366.20. This represents a 8.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Quan Long sold 34,400 shares of Autohome stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.29, for a total transaction of $181,976.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 175,984 shares in the company, valued at $930,955.36. The trade was a 16.35% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 49,304 shares of company stock valued at $260,818 in the last quarter. 5.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ATHM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Autohome from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised Autohome from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 22nd. Zacks Research upgraded Autohome from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. Bank of America lowered Autohome from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $19.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $26.50 price target on shares of Autohome in a research report on Wednesday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Autohome has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.95.

About Autohome

Autohome Inc (NYSE: ATHM) operates an online automotive platform serving consumers, automobile manufacturers, dealers and other industry participants primarily in China. Through its websites and mobile applications, the company provides information and digital tools to help users research vehicles, compare models, read reviews, explore pricing and connect with sellers.

The company’s services include automotive news and editorial content, vehicle specifications, user-generated discussions, professional evaluations, sales-lead generation and online marketing solutions.