Lithia Motors
Through the investors’ lenses
1 of 4 cleared6 of 10 criteria
Each of these investors has said in public what they look at before buying. Click a name to see how this company measures up — a tick where it passes one of their tests, a cross where it does not.
Warren Buffett 3/4
| Measure | LAD | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner earnings | $792.30m | positive | ✓ |
| Return on equity | 12.4% | US median 2.8% | ✓ |
| Debt to equity | 1.47x | US median 0.57x | ✗ |
| Operating margin | 4.2% | US median 3.1% | ✓ |
Passes 3 of 4. These are the measures Warren Buffett published, applied to Lithia Motors’s own figures — their criteria, not their view of this company. What he looks at, and why →
Benjamin Graham 1/3
| Measure | LAD | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current ratio | 1.17x | 2.00x published | ✗ |
| Long-term debt to working capital | 8.33x | 1.00x published | ✗ |
| Positive earnings, ten years running | 10 yrs | 10 published | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 3. These are the measures Benjamin Graham published, applied to Lithia Motors’s own figures — their criteria, not their view of this company. What he looks at, and why →
Joel Greenblatt 1/1
| Measure | LAD | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | 9.8% | US median 5.1% | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 1. These are the measures Joel Greenblatt published, applied to Lithia Motors’s own figures — their criteria, not their view of this company. What he looks at, and why →
Peter Lynch 1/2
| Measure | LAD | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debt to equity | 1.47x | US median 0.57x | ✗ |
| Net margin | 2.2% | US median 2.0% | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 2. These are the measures Peter Lynch published, applied to Lithia Motors’s own figures — their criteria, not their view of this company. What he looks at, and why →
Free cash flow is not shown for this company. It cannot be computed from what this company files — the inputs are absent from its XBRL, not zero. The figure marked in the table is operating cash flow instead.
| Basis | Payout | Why |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP earnings | 6.7% | whyThe figure most screeners publish. |
| Operating cash flow | 15.5% | whyAbsorbs working-capital swings that earnings do not. |
No free cash flow figure is shown. This company does not report the inputs for it in its XBRL filings — capital expenditure, in particular, is often folded into a single investing total rather than tagged on its own. The figure is absent from the filings, not zero, and inventing one from a balance-sheet movement would be a guess dressed as a measurement.
Spread between highest and lowest: 8.8 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 8 / 100 — Not covered. ? Peer standing · not rankedDirection 4/30Stability 0/20
Against its own history: 15.5% this year vs 5.3% median over the prior 5. A gap this size is usually a one-off — acquisition, settlement, cyclical trough — not a dividend that stopped being funded. The rating reads the latest year; the table shows the trend.
Operating cash flow payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 15.5% |
| 2024-12-31 | 13.3% |
| 2021-12-31 | 2.2% |
| 2020-12-31 | 5.3% |
| 2019-12-31 | 5.3% |
| 2018-12-31 | 5.3% |
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $2.18 ÷ diluted EPS $32.32
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $55.3m ÷ operating cash flow $357m
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-25 · accession 0001023128-26-000015
Every one is public at sec.gov and free to check. That is the point — you should not have to take our word for any of it.
Caveats on this company
- basis discarded as outside the sane band (distribution far larger than the year's income — usually a special dividend or a return of capital, not a payout ratio): fcf
Computed by an open pipeline reading SEC XBRL directly. If any number here looks wrong to you, tell us — that is more useful to us than agreement.
What the operating cash flow payout ratio measures, and where every company here sits on it.
Also on: rated not covered · when it files.
Who else looks like this
Every figure above is computed from Lithia Motors’s own filing, and every company here is measured the same way. Screen all of them on any of these twelve measures, or on the rules four investors published — free, and nothing you screen leaves your browser.
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