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CarGurus Q2 earnings call highlights. August 6, 2026 Key points. * Strong Q2 performance: CarGurus reported revenue of $251 million, up 13% year over year, with adjusted EBITDA of $85 million and free cash flow of $88 million. International revenue grew 28%, while U.S. CarSid revenue increased 8%. * AI products are driving engagement: Dealer adoption of tools such as PriceVantage and VinMax supported higher revenue per dealer, while average platform sessions per dealer rose 28%. Consumer AI leads in the U.S. increased 60% sequentially following the launch of the Guru brand. * Outlook and buybacks: CarGurus maintained its 2026 revenue-growth forecast of 10% to 13%, raised its profitability outlook, and repurchased $29 million of shares in Q2. The company had $46 million remaining under its 2026 buyback authorization at quarter-end. * Five stocks to consider instead of CarGurus. CarGurus NASDAQ: CARG reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $251 million, up 13% from a year earlier and above the midpoint of its guidance range, as adoption of add-on dealer products and international growth supported results. Adjusted EBITDA rose 7% to $85 million, representing a 34% margin, while free cash flow totaled $88 million. Chief Executive Officer Jason Trevisan said the company's international business grew 28% year over year during the quarter. U.S. CarSid revenue increased 8%, and the company added 673 paying U.S. dealers from a year earlier. CarGurus said add-on product adoption was its largest contributor to year-over-year and sequential growth in quarterly average revenue per subscribing dealer. Second-quarter non-GAAP net income per diluted share was $0.66, up 16% year over year. The company ended the period with $122 million in cash and cash equivalents, up $50 million from the prior quarter as cash generation more than offset $29 million in share repurchases. Dealer spending remained deliberate. Trevisan said dealer customers have been cautious about incremental spending during the first half of 2026. He attributed that caution to pressure on dealer margins and gross profit per unit, fewer days vehicles are sitting on dealer lots, and recent Federal Trade Commission-mandated all-in pricing transparency requirements. "We view these factors as temporary, not structural," Trevisan said. He said dealer unit sales and vehicle prices generally increased during the first half, while days on lot declined. Lower-priced inventory sold particularly well, reducing dealers' immediate reliance on marketing, he said. However, Trevisan added that some of these conditions improved during the first half. Despite the more measured spending environment, average sessions per dealer on CarGurus' platform increased 28% year over year. Trevisan said higher engagement reflected broader use of the company's artificial intelligence-enabled tools and their expansion across dealer workflows. AI products drive dealer engagement. CarGurus highlighted growth in its newer dealer software and data offerings, which the company groups into inventory, marketing, lead conversion, and data products. Trevisan said the company collects nearly half a billion first-party signals each day across shopper demand, pricing, inventory, and behavior, and is using that data to develop dealer tools and consumer experiences. Discover more Stock Market News EV Market Report Stock Profit Calculator Among subscribing independent dealers, those in the top quintile of platform engagement generated 78% more leads per unit than those in the bottom quintile, according to the company. * PriceVantage: Bookings grew more than 50% sequentially in the second quarter. CarGurus said dealers adopting the inventory-pricing tool saw a median 15% increase in vehicle detail page views and a 9% increase in leads per listing. * VinMax: The AI-powered marketing product identifies underperforming vehicle listings and promotes them through organic sort, highlights, and audience targeting. Listings promoted through the early-access rollout sold 23% faster and generated 34% more daily leads than comparable non-promoted listings, the company said. * Shopper Signals: CarGurus introduced a competition filter intended to show dealers how many other dealers a shopper contacted, helping sales teams assess urgency and prioritize outreach. * Competitive data tools: The company said its weekly competitive digest email has generated an open rate above 80%. President and Chief Operating Officer Sam Zales said PriceVantage adoption has been broad-based across independent and franchise dealers, rather than concentrated among a particular pricing tier. He described the product as a predictive analytics tool that helps dealers assess wholesale versus retail pricing and local vehicle demand. During the question-and-answer session, Trevisan said the company continues to evaluate acquisitions, with likely opportunities centered on smaller dealer-focused technology and software solutions that could accelerate its expansion across the four product pillars. Consumer AI experience expands. In July, CarGurus launched Guru as the consumer-facing brand for its AI capabilities. Guru includes the company's AI-native experience, previously called Discover, as well as an AI overlay integrated into its existing website. The company said Guru-driven leads in the U.S. increased 60% sequentially. Trevisan said the AI tools are designed not as a separately monetized search product but as part of CarGurus' core search experience, helping consumers find vehicles and providing dealers with more information about shopper preferences and intent. CarGurus has also introduced its conversational AI experience in the U.K. and Canada. The capability allows shoppers to describe their needs and intended uses rather than relying solely on conventional vehicle filters. Elsewhere in the consumer experience, the company said improvements to Sell My Car increased funnel conversion and produced significant incremental leads. Engagement with Dealership Mode, which provides pricing transparency, deal ratings, payment estimates, and vehicle comparisons on participating U.S. dealer lots, more than doubled in the company's app during the second quarter. Guidance and capital allocation. CarGurus reiterated its expectation for full-year 2026 revenue growth of 10% to 13% year over year. For the third quarter, the company forecast revenue of $253.5 million to $258.5 million, representing year-over-year growth of 9% to 12%. The company expects third-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $82 million to $90 million and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.63 to $0.69, based on approximately 90 million diluted weighted-average shares outstanding. CarGurus raised its full-year profitability outlook. It now expects non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA margin to decline by approximately 50 to 150 basis points in 2026 relative to 2025, an improvement from its prior outlook. Trevisan said AI-driven productivity gains, including in product development, customer support, software usage, and go-to-market operations, have improved efficiency while allowing the company to maintain its pace of product introductions. The company repurchased $29 million of shares in the second quarter, bringing year-to-date buybacks to $204 million under its $250 million 2026 authorization. As of the end of the quarter, $46 million remained available for repurchases. Since 2022, CarGurus has repurchased approximately $925 million of stock, representing more than 30% of shares outstanding, according to management. About CarGurus (NASDAQ:CARG). CarGurus, Inc operates an online automotive marketplace designed to connect buyers and sellers of new and used vehicles. Through its proprietary search engine and data-driven pricing tools, the platform enables consumers to compare listings, assess fair market values and locate local dealers offering competitive deals. CarGurus also provides detailed vehicle history reports, dealer reviews and financing options to streamline the car-shopping process for both private parties and franchised dealerships. The company's core product offerings include Instant Market Value (IMV), which leverages pricing algorithms to help buyers identify over- or under-priced vehicles, as well as dealer subscription services that grant automotive retailers access to lead generation tools, targeted advertising and dynamic pricing insights. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. Continue following MarketBeat Before you consider CarGurus, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. 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CarGurus launches AI shopping tool for Canadian buyers. July 29, 2026 Artificial intelligence is taking on a larger role in the vehicle shopping journey with CarGurus launching a new AI-powered shopping assistant for Canadian consumers. According to CarGurus, its new conversational tool, called Guru, allows shoppers to describe the type of vehicle they are looking for using natural language rather than traditional search filters. The platform then recommends vehicles using the company's Canadian market data, including real-time listings, pricing information, vehicle reviews and shopping insights. For dealers, the launch reflects the continued evolution of online vehicle marketplaces as AI becomes another tool for helping consumers research vehicles before contacting a retailer. The company said Guru is intended to connect dealerships with shoppers who have already refined their search and are closer to making a purchase decision. "A decade ago, we set out to raise the standard for car shopping through innovations that increased transparency and trust, starting with the introduction of vehicle deal ratings, Instant Market Value (IMV) price analysis, and days-on-lot data," said Sam Zales, President and Chief Operating Officer of CarGurus. "Now, Guru represents the next chapter of that work. Built on a decade of Canadian market data, our AI-powered innovations are helping shoppers and dealers make smarter decisions more efficiently." CarGurus said the tool was tailored for the Canadian market after first being developed for its U.S. platform. It combines real-time listing information with the company's proprietary pricing data, shopper search signals and automotive reviews to generate recommendations. The company also cited its own consumer research, conducted with NIQ, which found a majority of Canadian vehicle shoppers are open to using AI during the buying or selling process. According to the survey, shoppers are most interested in using AI to compare vehicles, summarize reviews and identify listings that match their needs. The launch coincides with CarGurus' 10th anniversary in Canada.

CarGurus touts AI car-shopping push, dealer growth and buybacks at conference. June 3, 2026 Key points. * CarGurus said it is seeing strong business momentum, including 15% year-over-year first-quarter growth and adjusted EBITDA margins in the 30s, while continuing to maintain full-year guidance for double-digit growth. * The company highlighted its AI strategy, including a ChatGPT app marketplace launch and its Discover assistant, aiming to make car shopping a more guided research-to-purchase experience rather than a "zero-click" transaction. * Management also emphasized dealer-product expansion and capital returns, citing new products like New Car Exposure and PriceVantage, plus nearly $900 million in share repurchases over the past few years and another $250 million buyback authorization this year. * Five stocks to consider instead of CarGurus. CarGurus NASDAQ: CARG highlighted its recent growth, artificial intelligence initiatives and dealer product strategy during a company discussion in which a CarGurus speaker identified as Jason addressed investor questions about valuation, guidance and the evolving online auto-shopping market. Jason said the company is "very proud" of its recent performance, citing 15% year-over-year growth in the first quarter and multiple years of double-digit growth. He said that growth has been driven largely by product innovation and product expansion, while adjusted EBITDA margins remain "in the 30s." He also pointed to earnings per share and free cash flow per share growth as potentially underappreciated, saying EPS grew at a compound annual growth rate of more than 50% from 2023 to 2025 as the company repurchased shares. AI strategy centers on research, consideration and purchase. Jason said CarGurus views the consumer car-shopping journey in three segments: research, consideration and purchase. Research involves determining what type of vehicle a consumer may want, consideration focuses on identifying the right vehicle, and purchase covers the transaction experience with the dealer. He said the company is working to make that journey a "full AI modal experience" for consumers. According to Jason, AI can shift the experience from curated information to an "expert guide" that makes recommendations, reduce the human effort involved in a process that often takes three to four months, and improve outcomes for both consumers and dealers by reducing information asymmetry. "We don't believe that car shopping is going to be a zero-click experience," Jason said, adding that vehicle purchases are too important and complex for consumers to rely only on a superficial interaction. CarGurus has launched an app in the ChatGPT app marketplace, which Jason said was the first in its category. He said traffic from large language models remains small at about 1% of total traffic, but converts at roughly twice the rate of normal traffic. Much of that traffic enters through Discover, the company's AI virtual assistant. Jason said users of Discover provide detailed information about their needs, such as family situation, weather conditions and desired driving characteristics, allowing CarGurus to recommend specific makes, models and trims. Dealer tools focus on conversion and data. Jason said CarGurus is using consumer data to create more useful profiles for dealers through tools such as Shopper Signals. That product can give dealership staff information about why a consumer is interested in a particular vehicle, which he said can help improve conversion when the consumer arrives at the dealership. Another product, Digital Deal, lets consumers complete parts of the transaction on CarGurus' site before visiting a dealer. Those steps can include getting a trade-in value, placing a deposit, setting an appointment and buying finance and insurance products from the dealer. Jason said the challenge for dealers is not a lack of data but changing dealership behavior. He said CarGurus' Dealer Performance Partners group works with hundreds of dealers each year to help them use the company's platform and best practices. He said that group can sometimes double a dealer customer's conversion rate. Data advantage described as part of the moat. Jason said data is an important part of CarGurus' competitive position, though not the only part. He said there are about 42,000 to 45,000 dealers in the U.S. and about 65,000 dealers across the U.S., U.K. and Canada. In the U.S., he said CarGurus has about 26,000 paying dealers and more than 30,000 dealers on its site due to a freemium model. He said the company collects about half a billion data points per day around pricing, inventory and consumer demand. CarGurus also receives feeds from dealers and integrates with dealer systems, converting unstructured vehicle information into data that can support comparisons, pricing validation, deduplication and deal ratings. "That is all data, but it's data over time, some of which is proprietary, and it's what we do with that that makes that a moat," Jason said. In response to an analyst question, Jason said CarGurus has about 85% of U.S. vehicle inventory on its site, which he described as the largest of anyone. He said the missing inventory is more likely to come from very small dealers, rural dealers with high-price strategies or some "buy here, pay here" dealers where CarGurus does not view the listed price as fair or validated. Product expansion drives dealer revenue. Jason said CarGurus maintained its full-year guidance after the first quarter and guided to double-digit growth. He said revenue growth is being driven primarily by quarterly average revenue per subscribing dealer, or QARSD, along with dealer rooftop growth. In the U.S., Jason said QARSD is about $7,500 per quarter, or roughly $2,500 per month per dealer. He said QARSD has been growing at a high-single-digit to low-double-digit rate for many quarters. The main drivers are upselling dealers to higher package tiers and cross-selling additional products. He cited New Car Exposure and PriceVantage as examples of recently launched products. New Car Exposure allows dealers to market specific new cars in more sophisticated ways, while PriceVantage is a pricing product in the inventory category. Jason said the two products, launched in the fourth quarter, are expected to grow 15-fold this year and become an eight-figure revenue stream combined. He also discussed Dealership Mode, a feature in the CarGurus app designed to help consumers compare cars and understand financing while at the dealership. Jason said about 80% of consumers checking in through Dealership Mode had not submitted a traditional lead, suggesting another channel of value for dealers. Capital allocation includes investment, M&A and buybacks. Jason said CarGurus' capital allocation priorities are investing in the business, pursuing mergers and acquisitions, and returning capital to shareholders. He said the company continues to invest heavily in innovation, particularly as it expands into software, data and AI-driven consumer experiences. He said CarGurus has repurchased nearly 30% of the company over the past three to four years, totaling almost $900 million of shares. In the first quarter, the company repurchased $175 million of stock and has a $250 million share repurchase authorization for the current calendar year. Jason said the company evaluates buybacks based on free cash flow yield, adding that management believes the current level is attractive as the company sees a long runway for durable growth. About CarGurus NASDAQ: CARG. CarGurus, Inc operates an online automotive marketplace designed to connect buyers and sellers of new and used vehicles. Through its proprietary search engine and data-driven pricing tools, the platform enables consumers to compare listings, assess fair market values and locate local dealers offering competitive deals. CarGurus also provides detailed vehicle history reports, dealer reviews and financing options to streamline the car-shopping process for both private parties and franchised dealerships. The company's core product offerings include Instant Market Value (IMV), which leverages pricing algorithms to help buyers identify over- or under-priced vehicles, as well as dealer subscription services that grant automotive retailers access to lead generation tools, targeted advertising and dynamic pricing insights. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. Before you consider CarGurus, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and CarGurus wasn't on the list. While CarGurus currently has a Hold rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. Discover more Media mentions analysis Stock market news Stock research tools