07:25 AM EDT, 04/25/2024 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

We lower our 12-month price target by $5 to $40, based on a '25 P/E of 6.5x and a justified discount to SAH's 5-year average forward P/E of 8.8x. We lower our adjusted EPS estimates to $6.00 from $6.45 for '24 and to $6.20 from $6.90 for '25. SAH posts Q1 EPS of $1.36 vs. $1.33 (+2%), ahead of the $1.30 consensus. The beat was driven by stronger-than-expected margins, as revenue fell 3% to $3.38B ($70M below consensus) while gross margin contracted 10 bps to 15.8% (30 bps ahead of consensus). SAH repurchased 0.5M shares for $27M during the quarter. With near-term comps likely to remain difficult, we see downside for SAH shares from current levels. We continue to have concerns regarding the SAH story and reiterate our Sell opinion. In our view, SAH remains one of the lower quality names in the auto retail sub-industry. With auto inventories having normalized from historically low levels and a higher-for-longer interest rate scenario unfolding, we think SAH is going to struggle in the near term.