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CARG · CarGurus, Inc.

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$37.44 -0.50 (-1.32%) At close · Aug 14
Market Cap
$3.33B
Shares
89.07M
All earnings calls

Earnings call · FY2026 Q1

CarGurus, Inc. Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call

CarGurus, Inc. Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call

Concluded May 7, 2026 Audio replay
May 7, 2026 45:42 42 turns
Period
FY2026 Q1
Runtime
45:42
Sources
4 artifacts

Executive readout · one minute

What matters this quarter

CarGurus reported Q1 2026 revenue of $244 million, up 15% year-over-year, with Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA of $80.2 million (up 17%, margin of 33%), above the high end of guidance, while GAAP net income from continuing operations fell 23% to $32.2 million and operating expenses rose 25%.

Consumer engagement metrics 35 Revenue and EBITDA growth 34 AI-led product innovation and dealer workflow 17 ChatGPT and LLM integration 13 AI traffic still small / early stage 10 Cash position and balance sheet 10

Management tone

Confident

Net tone +72 · moderate hedging

Grounding quotes
  • “We delivered strong financial results in the first quarter with 15% year-over-year revenue growth to $244 million and adjusted EBITDA up 17% year-over-year with a margin of 33%”
  • “revenue grew 39% year over year, reinforcing our ROI advantage, driving share gains in both markets”
  • “Usage of the extension tripled quarter over quarter, demonstrating that more daily inventory decisions are happening with CarGurus data in the loop”
  • “It does tend to be high-quality traffic. We show very well in the LLMs in terms of visibility and traffic, you know, receipt of traffic, our share of the traffic that comes from there.”

Forward guidance

4 guided metrics

Management's latest ranges and targets are included below.

Research coverage

4 live sources

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Revenue $243.56M +14.8% YoY
Diluted EPS $0.34 -8.1% YoY
Gross margin 92.2% -1.0 pp YoY
Net income $32.23M -17.5% YoY

Research materials

Open the source you need; every reader stays inside this workspace.

Key takeaways

What improved, and what deserves a closer read.

Constructive signals

  • Q1 revenue grew 15% YoY to $244M, at the midpoint of guidance; Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA of $80.2M was above the high end of guidance with margin expanding to 33%.
  • International (U.K. and Canada) revenue grew 39% YoY, reinforcing share gains in both markets.
  • Total paying dealers grew 7% to 34,596, with international paying dealers up 17% to 8,480; U.S. QARSD rose 9% YoY to $7,996.
  • PriceVantage has reached several hundred paying dealers since October, with usage tripling quarter-over-quarter, and top engaged dealers saw 117% faster turn time and 47% median increase in daily VDP views.
  • Over 8,000 dealers engaged with the new Shopper Signals feature within its first weeks after the mid-April launch, and Performance Insights saw a 76% open rate with 59% more price updates.
  • Returned $175M to shareholders in Q1 (29% of shares outstanding since December 2022), leaving $75M remaining on the buyback authorization.

Risks & pressure points

  • GAAP net income from continuing operations fell 23% YoY to $32.2M, with margin compressing 659 bps to 13%.
  • Operating expenses rose 25% YoY to $184.5M, including $19.7M of impairments ($19.2M in operating expenses).
  • Gross margin contracted 102 bps to 92%.
  • Cash and cash equivalents fell 62% YoY to $72.0M at quarter end.
  • Management cited headwinds including gas prices, consumer sentiment, and dealer inventory acquisition challenges, noting storms impacted dealer foot traffic short-term.
  • LLM-driven traffic remains a very small percent of overall traffic and leads, with no broad conversion or acquisition-cost metrics yet attributable to AI tools.

Forward guidance

From the 8-K filed May 7, 2026.

Metric Guided
Total revenue table
Second Quarter 2026
$247M – $252M
Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations table
Second Quarter 2026
$77.5M – $85.5M
Non-GAAP Earnings per Share from continuing operations table
Second Quarter 2026
$0.57 – $0.64
Revenue change YoY table
Full-Year 2026
10% – 13%

Quarter detail

How the reported period landed and where the business moved.

Revenue · regions

United States$219.99M +12.7% YoY
Non Us$23.57M +38.6% YoY

Capital returned

Buybacks
$174.44M
Shares repurchased
5.34M
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