This ASX car stock is tanking. Has it overreached?

This ASX car stock is hovering near a 52-week low, and investors have plenty to digest. At $19.52 at the time of writing, Eagers Automotive Ltd (ASX: APE) shares are down around 14% over the past month and 26% over the past 12 months.

That’s a striking reaction for a company that just delivered record first-half revenue and underlying profit. So what exactly is spooking the market?

Eagers is getting bigger — fast

Eagers is Australia’s largest automotive retailer, sitting across a sprawling portfolio of brands including Toyota, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Geely, and BYD. The $5 billion ASX car stock now represents more than 33 car brands and 11 truck and bus brands. And management shows zero signs of slowing down.

In April, Eagers completed its 65% investment in Canadian dealership giant CanadaOne Auto, effectively creating a much larger international automotive retail platform. On an FY25 pro-forma basis, the combined group would have generated $18.7 billion of revenue and $968.6 million of EBITDA. That’s a serious step-change in scale.

Then came Australia. Eagers agreed to invest 49% in Grand Motors Group, covering dealerships representing Toyota, BMW, MINI, Kia, Mazda, and Subaru, while also snapping up two Audi dealerships from Zagame. Together, those deals add roughly $630 million of annual revenue.

Now Eagers is going upmarket

The latest move might be the most eye-catching yet. Eagers has entered a non-binding agreement to acquire a 50% stake in Zagame Automotive Group, the Melbourne and Adelaide luxury-car retailer, via a joint venture with founder Bobby Zagame. The business pulled in about $600 million of revenue in the year to June 2026.

Zagame’s portfolio isn’t your average showroom. Think Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Rolls-Royce. That deal hands the ASX car stock considerably more exposure to the luxury and super-luxury end of the market, a segment it’s had relatively little presence in until now.

But bigger doesn’t automatically mean better

On paper, the business is firing. First-half FY26 revenue surged 24% to about $8.1 billion, while underlying profit before tax hit $250.4 million. Those are genuinely strong numbers.

The concern is what comes next. CanadaOne, Grand Motors, and Zagame all represent substantial additional capital commitments, plus real integration complexity across different countries, brands, and price points.

At the same time, investors are watching margins nervously as the automotive industry navigates a major transition. New brands are flooding the market, consumer preferences are shifitng, and pricing pressure shows no sign of easing.

Bull case vs bear case

The bull case for the ASX car stock is straightforward: Eagers is assembling a diversified global automotive retail powerhouse, spanning mainstream, luxury, and international markets, that could compound earnings for years.

The bear case is just as easy to make: Management is expanding aggressively at precisely the moment the economics of traditional car retail are becoming harder to predict, and each new acquisition adds another layer of execution risk.

The post This ASX car stock is tanking. Has it overreached? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Marc Van Dinther has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Eagers Automotive Ltd. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.