October 29, 2026
| Q3, three months to Sept 30 | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Earnings per share, as reported | $3.36 | $3.41 |
| F&I gross profit per car | $1,731 | $1,795 |
| F&I gross profit per car, same-store | $1,734 | $1,817 |
| Used-car gross profit per car | $1,946 | $2,083 |
| Commercial truck dealerships, pre-tax income | $59.6 million | $41.5 million |
Source: Penske Automotive Group third-quarter 2026 release, October 28, 2026.
Deal costs were bigger than the decline
Penske Automotive Group’s earnings per share fell for a third straight reporting period, after declines in 2025 and the first half of 2026, its third-quarter release shows. The drop was five cents, and the quarter carried seven cents a share of costs for the buyout by Penske Corporation and Mitsui. Added back, a step the release does not take, those costs would put the quarter at about $3.43 by GCBC’s arithmetic, a little above a year earlier.
The weakness is in the car stores, where the business office made $64 less per car. That office earns a fee on each loan it arranges and a margin on the service contracts and protection plans it sells. Lithia & Driveway reported an $85 fall in the same measure a week earlier, and Group 1 Automotive a $74 fall in its October 28 release.
Less on each car, more from trucks
Retail deliveries of new and used cars rose about half a percent from a year earlier, yet total F&I gross profit fell 2.7%, so the fall is in what each deal earned rather than in how many deals there were. Profit on the vehicles fell too, more on used cars than new, and new-car gross profit per unit was $258 lower than in the second quarter. The release gives no reason, and there was no earnings call to ask.
Truck businesses held Penske’s pre-tax income close to level. Pre-tax income at the commercial truck dealerships rose about 44%, and the company’s earnings from affiliates, nearly all of them from its 28.9% stake in Penske Transportation Solutions, the truck-leasing company, rose 17%. Service and parts gross profit in the car stores rose 2.6%.
Two other ways to read the quarter
The year-earlier $3.41 also includes Penske Motor Group’s results from before Penske Automotive owned it. Accounting rules require that restatement when a business is bought from a company under the same control. The release’s own reconciliation, which counts the group only from November 1, 2025, puts the year-earlier quarter at $3.23. On reported figures, earnings per share fell; on either the deal-cost or the ownership reading, they rose.
This was the first quarter reported since the agreement to take Penske private at $212 a share. The merger agreement also limits buybacks, and the release says the company does not expect to buy back more stock while the deal is pending, so a shrinking share count, down 0.5% this quarter, will not prop up earnings per share the way it did at Lithia.
What to watch
AutoNation reports on October 30, according to its call announcement. Its F&I profit per car is the fourth read on the business office. A fall there would mean four large groups earning less on each finance and protection sale, which looks like the car buyer changing; a flat or higher figure would keep it a problem for three groups. Its service business is the second number: in the first quarter, aftersales carried AutoNation’s results while retail slowed.
