The Carsales.com Ltd (ASX: CAR) share price is on the rise today, up a healthy 2.8% at the time of writing to $28.70 a share.
Perhaps investors are excited about their shares being upgraded to a newer model.
Yesterday, Carsales announced that investors have approved a name change for this venerated ASX classifieds business. It's the first name change since the company's founding in 1996.
Carsales.com Limited is soon to be known as CAR Group Limited (capitalisation intentional). That's after shareholders approved the new paint job at the company's annual general meeting held last month on 26 October.
The company's ticker code on the ASX will remain as 'ASX: CAR'. However, Carsales shares will officially switch to CAR Group shares on the ASX effective from tomorrow, Friday, 3 November.
However, the company website has already changed its domain. It can now be found at 'cargroup.com'.
In the statement released to ASX investors this Thursday, Carsales/CAR Group told investors why the company has initiated this rebranding:
This name change reflects the company's growth and scale of international operations. Following the most recent acquisition of an additional 40% of webmotors in Brazil, more than 50% of the company's revenue is being generated outside of Australia.
It is appropriate to differentiate the listed entity from the Australian marketplace brand, and a change of name which is aligned to the company's ASX code clearly delineates the listed parent company from its marketplace brands around the globe. The company does not plan to change the brands of any of its marketplaces or other businesses in any country.
So if you are reading this back from tomorrow onwards whilst wondering why your Carsales shares suddenly have a new name, that's your answer.
Carsales share price snapshot
The Carsales share price has been on a tear in 2023 so far. The company is up a healthy 41.15% year to date, and trading 36.1% higher over the past 12 months.
Since Carsales reported its full-year earnings for FY2023 back in August, an investment in this ASX 200 share has proven to be especially lucrative.
As we covered at the time, these earnings saw Carsales report an 18% rise in revenues to $798.1 million. On top of that, we also saw a 43% surge in adjusted net profits after tax to $278.2 million. As a result, the company's final dividend for this year was boosted by 33% to 32.5 cents per share. That dividend hit bank accounts last month on 16 October.
Since this earnings report was released on 14 August, the Carsales shares have gained just over 16%.
At the current Carsales share price, this ASX 200 share has a market capitalisation of $10.7 billion, with a dividend yield of 2.15%.
