# Autohome (ATHM.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/ATHM

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:26:39.560Z. Financial observations: FY2010–FY2025.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: CNY.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: pass; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $20.37 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low $47.79 per share, central $51.17 per share, high $55.67 per share. Buy at or below the central value $51.17 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:26:39.560Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 4 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 4

- Years with a net loss: 0

- Operating margin variation: 0.43×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 0.19×

- FY2017: 0.33×

- FY2018: 0.40×

- FY2019: 0.38×

- FY2020: 0.36×

- FY2021: 0.25×

- FY2022: 0.18×

- FY2023: 0.16×

- FY2024: 0.14×

- FY2025: 0.09×

### moat: fail

- Years with nonpositive invested capital use equity plus debt and leases; positive earnings with no positive capital are shown above 100%.

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- Recent gross margin fell 8.9pp below the typical margin (limit 4pp)

- ROIC, median of available years: 6.5%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: 4.0%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 8.9 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 81.3%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 72.4%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 5

- Capital spending / revenue: 1.8%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: 74.4%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 27.6%

- FY2017: 34.7%

- FY2018: 31.0%

- FY2021: 7.7%

- FY2022: 5.2%

- FY2023: 4.5%

- FY2024: 4.0%

- FY2025: 2.2%

### economics: fail

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 1.11×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: CNY 11B

- Net income, five-year total: CNY 9.7B

- Return on incremental invested capital: 0.0%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -3.7 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: -17.6 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: -8.7%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: 1.08×

- FY2022: 1.16×

- FY2023: 1.13×

- FY2024: 1.09×

- FY2025: 1.11×

### management: pass

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2016 to 2025 (9 years)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 31.0% vs 4.0%

- Per-share earnings: 10.54 to 14.71 (three-year endpoint medians)

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: 0.2%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: -0.5%

- Market cap gain: CNY -2.2B

- Cumulative retained earnings: CNY 9.7B

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 0.2%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -0.5%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2016

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value growth: 4.3%

- Per-share value change: CNY 4.17

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: CNY 10.54

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: CNY 14.71

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): -0.80

- Average buyback yield: 2.6%

- Buyback history: 5 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: No

- Acquisition spending: CNY 2.8B

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: CNY 22B

- ROIC, first three-year median: 31.0%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 4.0%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: CNY 10.54

- FY2017: CNY 16.86

- FY2018: CNY 24.09

- FY2019: CNY 26.77

- FY2020: CNY 28.30

- FY2021: CNY 20.24

- FY2022: CNY 15.74

- FY2023: CNY 16.75

- FY2024: CNY 14.71

- FY2025: CNY 11.95

### accounting: pass

- stock compensation exceeds 15% of operating cash flow

- Sloan accruals: 1.8%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.22×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 24.6%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 0.63×

- Accounting red flags: 1

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.17×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -4.2%

- FY2017: -3.8%

- FY2018: -1.5%

- FY2021: -3.4%

- FY2022: -2.1%

- FY2023: -1.4%

- FY2024: 1.4%

- FY2025: 1.8%

## Holders

## Price story

Down 48% since Oct 2021 · "Autohome (NYSE:ATHM) Valuation After Q1 Revenue Slump And Pivot Toward AI And Overseas Growth" (finance.yahoo.com, Jun 2026) · sales -10.8%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:58:20.549Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2025-08-20: Earnings call transcript: Autohome Q2 2025 beats EPS forecasts with AI push ([investing.com](https://www.investing.com/news/transcripts/earnings-call-transcript-autohome-q2-2025-beats-eps-forecasts-with-ai-push-93CH-4202713))

- 2026-06-05: Autohome (NYSE:ATHM) Valuation After Q1 Revenue Slump And Pivot Toward AI And Overseas Growth ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/autohome-nyse-athm-valuation-q1-060701875.html))

### Sales · FY2024–2025

sales -10.8%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1527636/000119312526155932/athm-20251231.htm; observed 2026-04-15.

- FY2016: CNY 6.0B 

- FY2017: CNY 6.2B 

- FY2018: CNY 7.2B 

- FY2019: CNY 8.4B 

- FY2020: CNY 8.7B 

- FY2021: CNY 7.2B 

- FY2022: CNY 6.9B 

- FY2023: CNY 7.2B 

- FY2024: CNY 7.0B 

- FY2025: CNY 6.3B 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 72.4%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1527636/000119312526155932/athm-20251231.htm; observed 2026-04-15.

- FY2016: 59.9% 

- FY2017: 78.1% 

- FY2018: 88.7% 

- FY2019: 88.6% 

- FY2020: 88.9% 

- FY2021: 85.5% 

- FY2022: 82.2% 

- FY2023: 80.3% 

- FY2024: 78.9% 

- FY2025: 72.4% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in internet content & information; annual sales are CNY 6.3 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1527636/000119312526155932/athm-20251231.htm (filed 2026-04-15); FY2025: revenue 6276245519; grossProfit 4541014697; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-15); ATHM.US: Autohome Inc. operates as an online destination for automobile consumers in the People's Republic of China. The company delivers interactive content and tools to automobile consumers through its websites, autohome.com.cn, che168.com, and ttpai.cn on PCs, mobile devices, mobile applications, and mini apps. It also provides media services, including automaker advertising services and regional marketing campaigns; and leads generation services comprising dealer subscription services, advertising services for individual dealers, and used automobile listing and other platform-based services. In addition, the company offers Autohome Mall, an online transaction platform; and online bidding platform for used automobiles, as well as collects commissions for facilitating transactions of auto-financing and insurance products on its platform. The company was formerly known as Sequel Limited and changed its name to Autohome Inc. in October 2011. Autohome Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Beijing, China.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 72.4% to 80.3% during 2023–25; it earns 6.5% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 80.3%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 78.9%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1527636/000119312526155932/athm-20251231.htm (filed 2026-04-15); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 72.4%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,0.27646753244107436],[2017,0.34691885705329845],[2018,0.31028165300592353],[2021,0.07709067973105069],[2022,0.05198174891520482],[2023,0.04544539242203743],[2024,0.04017447256305629],[2025,0.021712457860518317]]; median 0.06453621432312776. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 9 of 10 years; bought back CNY 1.1 billion of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); FY2016: growth capex 15039104.657206476; upkeep 73797895.34279352; owner earnings 1223920104.6572065. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.012287652274017185.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); FY2017: growth capex 1223037.3935492337; upkeep 106298962.60645077; owner earnings 1984158037.3935492. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.0006164011991483567.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); FY2018: growth capex 4125061.459874332; upkeep 109774938.54012567; owner earnings 2863133061.459874. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.0014407508737197903.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); FY2019: growth capex 4305509.125916034; upkeep 199807490.87408397; owner earnings 3118761509.125916. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.001380518873699555.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); FY2020: growth capex 784534.2125908434; upkeep 263680465.78740916; owner earnings 3311822534.2125907. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.00023688896505964866.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); FY2021: growth capex 0; upkeep 219608000; owner earnings 2771914000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); FY2022: growth capex 0; upkeep 117542000; owner earnings 2251262000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); FY2023: growth capex 0; upkeep 78896000; owner earnings 2307059000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); FY2024: growth capex 0; upkeep 139996000; owner earnings 1956670000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1527636/000119312526155932/athm-20251231.htm (filed 2026-04-15); FY2025: growth capex 0; upkeep 118057000; owner earnings 1558885331. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); Dividend observations: [[2016,0],[2017,651121000],[2018,595779000],[2019,651121000],[2020,651121000],[2021,673375000],[2022,421680000],[2023,490990000],[2024,1480752000],[2025,1481245000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1527636/000119312526155932/athm-20251231.htm (filed 2026-04-15); FY2025: cash repurchases 1051983000 CNY.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 0.3% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-15); ATHM.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 0.264 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-15.

### What the price says

The price is 2.5 times annual sales.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-15); Closing price 20.37 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 0.14944; FY2025 annual sales per share 53.45894204667509; price multiple 2.5497864583744376. FY2025 cash earnings/share 13.278059361294549. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $23.45 per share

- 2016-11: $27.58 per share

- 2016-12: $25.28 per share

- 2017-01: $31.39 per share

- 2017-02: $33.22 per share

- 2017-03: $31.77 per share

- 2017-04: $34.60 per share

- 2017-05: $42.38 per share

- 2017-06: $45.36 per share

- 2017-07: $48.68 per share

- 2017-08: $64.27 per share

- 2017-09: $60.08 per share

- 2017-10: $57.51 per share

- 2017-11: $55.37 per share

- 2017-12: $64.67 per share

- 2018-01: $83.28 per share

- 2018-02: $78.21 per share

- 2018-03: $85.94 per share

- 2018-04: $97.55 per share

- 2018-05: $112.72 per share

- 2018-06: $101.00 per share

- 2018-07: $96.75 per share

- 2018-08: $82.61 per share

- 2018-09: $77.41 per share

- 2018-10: $72.38 per share

- 2018-11: $82.34 per share

- 2018-12: $78.23 per share

- 2019-01: $72.38 per share

- 2019-02: $94.05 per share

- 2019-03: $105.12 per share

- 2019-04: $115.49 per share

- 2019-05: $85.90 per share

- 2019-06: $85.62 per share

- 2019-07: $85.00 per share

- 2019-08: $87.16 per share

- 2019-09: $83.13 per share

- 2019-10: $84.56 per share

- 2019-11: $68.05 per share

- 2019-12: $80.01 per share

- 2020-01: $76.48 per share

- 2020-02: $77.67 per share

- 2020-03: $71.02 per share

- 2020-04: $82.15 per share

- 2020-05: $76.93 per share

- 2020-06: $75.50 per share

- 2020-07: $87.65 per share

- 2020-08: $80.24 per share

- 2020-09: $96.00 per share

- 2020-10: $95.55 per share

- 2020-11: $94.42 per share

- 2020-12: $99.62 per share

- 2021-01: $110.23 per share

- 2021-02: $114.04 per share

- 2021-03: $93.27 per share

- 2021-04: $92.73 per share

- 2021-05: $77.07 per share

- 2021-06: $63.96 per share

- 2021-07: $45.30 per share

- 2021-08: $44.26 per share

- 2021-09: $46.93 per share

- 2021-10: $39.35 per share

- 2021-11: $34.17 per share

- 2021-12: $29.48 per share

- 2022-01: $33.32 per share

- 2022-02: $30.59 per share

- 2022-03: $30.41 per share

- 2022-04: $29.07 per share

- 2022-05: $36.34 per share

- 2022-06: $39.33 per share

- 2022-07: $35.69 per share

- 2022-08: $35.61 per share

- 2022-09: $28.76 per share

- 2022-10: $26.12 per share

- 2022-11: $29.90 per share

- 2022-12: $30.60 per share

- 2023-01: $34.86 per share

- 2023-02: $30.50 per share

- 2023-03: $33.47 per share

- 2023-04: $29.65 per share

- 2023-05: $28.62 per share

- 2023-06: $29.16 per share

- 2023-07: $31.97 per share

- 2023-08: $28.90 per share

- 2023-09: $30.35 per share

- 2023-10: $26.75 per share

- 2023-11: $27.31 per share

- 2023-12: $28.06 per share

- 2024-01: $25.20 per share

- 2024-02: $25.99 per share

- 2024-03: $26.22 per share

- 2024-04: $25.70 per share

- 2024-05: $28.40 per share

- 2024-06: $27.45 per share

- 2024-07: $24.94 per share

- 2024-08: $25.16 per share

- 2024-09: $32.62 per share

- 2024-10: $28.10 per share

- 2024-11: $27.51 per share

- 2024-12: $25.95 per share

- 2025-01: $28.02 per share

- 2025-02: $28.74 per share

- 2025-03: $27.72 per share

- 2025-04: $27.28 per share

- 2025-05: $24.52 per share

- 2025-06: $25.79 per share

- 2025-07: $27.09 per share

- 2025-08: $28.88 per share

- 2025-09: $28.55 per share

- 2025-10: $25.20 per share

- 2025-11: $23.76 per share

- 2025-12: $22.26 per share

- 2026-01: $22.04 per share

- 2026-02: $19.18 per share

- 2026-03: $17.37 per share

- 2026-04: $18.63 per share

- 2026-05: $17.46 per share

- 2026-06: $19.03 per share

- 2026-07: $23.22 per share

- 2026-08: $21.94 per share

- 2026-09: $21.25 per share

- 2026-10: $20.37 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2016: low $25.19 per share, central $28.53 per share, high $32.99 per share

- FY2017: low $28.72 per share, central $32.48 per share, high $37.49 per share

- FY2018: low $33.33 per share, central $37.70 per share, high $43.52 per share

- FY2019: low $38.38 per share, central $43.45 per share, high $50.20 per share

- FY2020: low $55.75 per share, central $78.95 per share, high $92.46 per share

- FY2021: low $68.78 per share, central $87.83 per share, high $98.93 per share

- FY2022: low $61.64 per share, central $66.48 per share, high $72.92 per share

- FY2023: low $64.60 per share, central $69.53 per share, high $76.10 per share

- FY2024: low $59.02 per share, central $63.24 per share, high $68.86 per share

- FY2025: low $52.37 per share, central $56.24 per share, high $61.38 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 20-F filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1527636/000119312526155932/athm-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-04-15.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.