Avis Budget Group, Inc. (CAR) Stock Price & How to Invest

Avis Budget Group runs one of the three big global vehicle-rental platforms, operating the Avis, Budget, Budget Truck, Payless and Zipcar brands across airport, off-airport, urban and international markets. Revenue comes from renting a large owned-and-leased vehicle fleet, and the economics hinge on utilization, per-day pricing and the residual value of cars when they are sold out of the fleet. The company competes with privately held Enterprise Holdings, Hertz, Europe's Sixt, and peer-to-peer platforms like Turo and Getaround.

The investment picture is defined by leverage and cyclicality. Full-year 2025 revenue was about $11.7 billion, but the company posted a large net loss after writing down electric-vehicle residual values, and it carries roughly $6 billion of corporate debt on top of around $18 billion of vehicle-program debt, leaving negative stockholders' equity. Bulls point to a return to revenue growth, record vehicle utilization and a raised 2026 EBITDA outlook; skeptics focus on the thin equity cushion, refinancing needs and how sensitive earnings are to used-car prices.

The equity is small relative to enormous fleet and corporate debt, so modest swings in used-car residual values, interest rates or demand can move the stock sharply, and the shares carry a beta well above the market. Negative stockholders' equity leaves little cushion if losses continue, and refinancing large maturities is an ongoing requirement rather than a one-time event. Competition from Enterprise, Hertz, Sixt and peer-to-peer platforms limits pricing power, and further EV or fleet writedowns remain possible. Results are also seasonal, with the first quarter typically the weakest, which can exaggerate headline losses.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Avis Budget Group, Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (FY2025): ~$11.7B
• Revenue (Q1 2026): ~$2.53B, up ~4% YoY
• Net loss (FY2025): ~$995M
• Adjusted EBITDA (FY2025): ~$748M
• Corporate debt: ~$6.0B (leverage ~7.6x)
• Market cap: ~$5.8B (share price ~$161)

CAR does not screen on a simple price-to-earnings basis because trailing earnings per share are negative, so investors lean on enterprise-value-to-EBITDA and the path back toward the company's roughly $1 billion adjusted EBITDA goal. With about 35 million shares outstanding and negative book equity, the stock behaves like a leveraged call on the rental cycle. Figures are approximate and drawn from the company's 2025 full-year and first-quarter 2026 disclosures.

There are three common ways to get CAR exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic basket, so CAR sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the basket route. Describe a thesis where CAR fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

CAR pairs a recovering top line and record fleet utilization with negative equity and heavy leverage, making it a high-beta bet on the rental cycle and vehicle residual values.

Whether CAR is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is CAR a buy?, and where the stock could go from here in the CAR stock forecast.

For income investors, whether CAR pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does CAR pay a dividend?