Why Carvana (CVNA) Stock Is Soaring Today

What happened

Shares of online used-car seller Carvana (CVNA) soared 15.7% on Thursday after it sold a record number of cars in the third quarter, Investing.com and 24/7 Wall St reported. The company sold 217,385 cars to retail customers, up 39% year on year, in results released after the close on Wednesday.

Revenue rose 42% to a record $8.04 billion, ahead of the roughly $7.67 billion analysts expected, according to Investing.com and 24/7 Wall St. Earnings per share fell short of estimates, both outlets reported, but 24/7 Wall St said the record sales overshadowed the miss.

“This is our first quarter with over 200,000 sales. Our run rate is now 870,000, double what it was just 2 years ago,” founder and Chief Executive Ernie Garcia said on the earnings call. The shares closed at $68.31, up 15.7% from the previous close.

Why it matters

Volume is the story Carvana investors buy. The company said the used-car market was roughly flat in the quarter, so its 39% jump in units came from winning market share. If conditions stay stable, it expects to sell more cars in the fourth quarter than in the third, and 2026 adjusted EBITDA, a measure of operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, at the higher end of its $2.7 billion to $3.0 billion range.

Profit per car is the weak spot. Adjusted EBITDA came to a record $800 million, but that was $3,680 a car, down from $4,085 a year earlier, and the margin slipped to 10.0% of revenue from 11.3%. Carvana said in its shareholder letter that high fuel prices and “rapidly rising benchmark interest rates” cost it about $200 a car.

Before the report, the stock had been trading near multi-month lows on worries about rising rates and margins, Investing.com said, and 24/7 Wall St called rising rates and fuel costs the bears’ main concerns.

What the market is telling us

Carvana’s shares moved 5% or more on 47 of the last 252 sessions. The last move at least this big in the same direction was on 31 July 2025, when the stock rose 17.0%. The stock is down 19.1% this year, and at $68.31 it sits 28.6% below its 52-week closing high of $95.69 from 22 January 2026, adjusted for its five-for-one stock split in May. $1,000 invested in Carvana five years ago would be worth $1,127 today.

Thursday’s jump won back only part of the year’s fall, and we think that’s fair: 39% unit growth is excellent, but the adjusted EBITDA margin fell 1.3 points, and we’d want profit per car to stop shrinking before calling a turn.