Proactive Investors - Auto Trader (LON:AUTOA) has been buoyed this year by hopes of a rebound in the UK economy fuelled by the hope of lower interest rates and an uptick in consumer spending.
Inflation's stubbornness might have dampened some of those hopes in the past fortnight, but expectations still are for AutoTrader to be relatively upbeat when it reports tomorrow.
The second-hand car market has remained tight thanks to weak production of new cars due to ongoing silicon chip shortages and although visits to its site have slowed post-covid they are still well ahead pre-pandemic levels.
Average revenue per retailer (ARPR) rose 9% year-on-year in the first half to £2,404, notes AJ Bell, thanks to the combination of both price and product mix and is expected to have risen again over the second half of the year.
Physical car stock on site was 440,000 units at the end of the first half and was guided to be flat by the company, though Auto Trader ended fiscal 2022 with 13,964 forecourts signed up, and this might be lower in the year just ended.
On financials, sales of £500mln for the year to March just ended are the analyst consensus, with a rise to £544mln in fiscal 2024.