What Happened?

Shares of online used car dealer Carvana (NYSE: CVNA) fell 15.8% in the afternoon session after the company reported fourth-quarter 2024 earnings, but expectations were high heading into the announcements, and the results failed to impress. Carvana exceeded analysts' EBITDA and revenue estimates as it sold more used vehicles than anticipated. Zooming out, we think this was a decent quarter with some key areas of upside. The market seemed to be hoping for more, however, as shares were up 40%+ year-to-date going into the print.

The shares closed the day at $247.99, down 12% from previous close.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

Carvana’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 44 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Carvana and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.

The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was about 2 months ago when the stock dropped 11% on the news that short seller Hindenburg Research published a report accusing the company of "accounting manipulation and lax underwriting." In response, Carvana called the report "intentionally misleading and inaccurate."

Carvana is up 24.1% since the beginning of the year, but at $247.72 per share, it is still trading 13.2% below its 52-week high of $285.33 from February 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Carvana’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,277.

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