SAH (Sonic Automotive) EBITDA: $512 Mil (TTM As of Mar. 2026)

Sonic Automotive  (NYSE:SAH) EBITDA Explanation

EBITDA is a cash flow measure that ignores changes in working capital. EBITDA minus Depreciation, and Amortization (DA) equals Operating Income. Operating Income is profit before interest and taxes. Of course, Interest and taxes need to be paid.

While depreciation and amortization expenses do not need to be paid in cash, assets - especially tangible assets - do need to be replaced over time. EBITDA is not a measure of profit in any sense. EBITDA is a measure of cash generation by a business where the uses of that cash may be more or less discretionary depending on the nature of the business.

The EBITDA of a TV station is largely discretionary. Owners may use much of the EBITDA generated by a TV station as they see fit. The EBITDA of a railroad is largely non-discretionary. Owners must use much of the EBITDA generated by a railroad to replace the physical assets of the railroad or the business will literally fall apart over time.

EBITDA can be thought of as the cash a business generates that is available to:

EBITDA is widely used in financial analysis because Depreciation and Amortization are not present day cash expenses.. Depreciation and amortization are the spreading out of the costs of assets over the time in which those assets provide benefits. Today's depreciation and amortization expenses relate to assets bought in the past. The assets being expensed may or may not need to be replaced in the future. And the cost to replace the assets may be more or less than it was in the past. For this reason, the depreciation and amortization expenses a company records in the present year may have no relationship to the actual cash costs needed to maintain its assets in future years.

A company's depreciation expense depends on both its expectations about the assets it owns and its choice of accounting methods. Two companies owning identical assets may have different depreciation expenses because they have different expectations about the useful lives of those assets and because they make different accounting choices.

Analysts use EBITDA to remove this element of personal choice from a company's accounting statements. The use of EBITDA is an attempt to make the results of different companies more comparable and uniform.

Be Aware

Although depreciation is not a cash cost it is a real business cost because the company has to pay for the fixed assets when they purchase them. Both Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger hate the idea of EBITDA because in this calculation, depreciation is not counted as an expense.

EBITDA over Revenue is a good metric for comparing the operating efficiencies between companies because EBITDA is less vulnerable to companies' accounting choices. For this reason, EBITDA is used in ranking the Predictability of Companies. Also Price-to-EBITDA is sometimes used in valuations.

Sonic Automotive EBITDA Related Terms

The historical data trend for Sonic Automotive's EBITDA can be seen below:

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

Sonic Automotive EBITDA Chart

Sonic Automotive Annual Data
	Trend	Dec16	Dec17	Dec18	Dec19	Dec20	Dec21	Dec22	Dec23	Dec24	Dec25
EBITDA		Get a 7-Day Free Trial					619.20	441.70	566.00	605.10	525.30

Sonic Automotive Quarterly Data
	Jun21	Sep21	Dec21	Mar22	Jun22	Sep22	Dec22	Mar23	Jun23	Sep23	Dec23	Mar24	Jun24	Sep24	Dec24	Mar25	Jun25	Sep25	Dec25	Mar26
EBITDA	Get a 7-Day Free Trial															183.20	15.70	162.40	163.60	170.10

SAH vs CARG, MCW, DRVN: EBITDA Comparison

For the Auto & Truck Dealerships subindustry, Sonic Automotive's EV-to-EBITDA, along with its competitors' market caps and EV-to-EBITDA data, can be viewed below:

* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap. Note that "N/A" values will not show up in the chart.

Sonic Automotive EV-to-EBITDA vs Vehicles & Parts Industry

For the Vehicles & Parts industry and Consumer Cyclical sector, Sonic Automotive's EV-to-EBITDA distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where Sonic Automotive's EV-to-EBITDA falls into.

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) is what the company earns before it expenses interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Sonic Automotive's EBITDA for the fiscal year that ended in Dec. 2025 is calculated as

Sonic Automotive's EBITDA was directly provided by GuruFocus' data source Morningstar. For the fiscal year ended in Dec. 2025, Sonic Automotive's EBITDA was $525 Mil.

Sonic Automotive's EBITDA for the quarter that ended in Mar. 2026 is calculated as

Sonic Automotive's EBITDA was directly provided by GuruFocus' data source Morningstar. For the quarter ended in Mar. 2026, Sonic Automotive's EBITDA was $170 Mil.

EBITDA for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Mar. 2026 adds up the quarterly data reported by the company within the most recent 12 months, which was $512 Mil.

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

Sometimes companies may have already deducted Depreciation and Amortization from Gross Profit. In this case Depreciation and Amortization needs to be added back when calculating EBITDA.

Sonic Automotive Business Description