Manchester-based Auto Trader Group plc said its revenue rose 4% to £624.3 million and profit before tax rose 3% to £388.8 million in the year to year ended March 31, 2026.

Dividend per share rose 9% to 11.6p.

“During the year, we returned £463m to shareholders through dividends and accelerated share buybacks, largely in H2,” said the Manchester firm.

“We purchased 58.5m shares (6.6% of issued share capital), drawing £165m of our debt facility, increasing leverage up to 0.3x …

“The board believes the prevailing Autotrader share price does not reflect the company’s fundamentals or long-term prospects and is therefore updating its capital allocation policy.

“We will continue to invest in the business to support growth and continue with our existing dividend policy. In financial year 2027, we currently expect to return c.£600m to shareholders, through c.£500m of share buybacks and continuing to pay a third of net income in dividends.

“This returns over £1bn to shareholders over the course of 2026 and 2027.”

Auto Trader CEO Nathan Coe said: “We continued to grow both revenue and profits this year, despite a challenging backdrop. Our competitive position has strengthened, with six times more time spent on Autotrader than all our main competitors combined.

“We remain committed to using our brand, technology and proprietary data to benefit car buyers and retailers. AI will significantly enhance our ability to do this which has already been demonstrated through our retailer products, such as Co-Driver and Buying Signals, as well as our improved search functionality for car buyers both on our marketplace and within ChatGPT.

“Looking forward we are confident we will continue to power a better car buying experience and more profitable retailing for our customers.”