The ASX All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is climbing higher today, up 0.82% at the time of writing. Over the year, the index has climbed 15.37%. And some shares are driving more index growth than others.
In a recent note to investors, Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) pointed to four strong automotive stocks that investors should buy today.
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Amotiv Ltd (ASX: AOV)
The Amotiv share price is in the green on Wednesday afternoon. At the time of writing, the share price was 3.15% higher and changing hands at $9.015 a piece. For the year, the company's share price is 11.27% lower.
The company, which owns a portfolio of brands in the automotive market, is one of Macquarie's top stock picks. The broker has an outperform rating on Amotiv shares and a $10.90 target price. This represents a potential 20.9% upside for investors over the next 12 months, according to the share price at the time of writing.
ARB Corp Ltd (ASX: ARB)
ARB is Australia's largest designer, manufacturer, and distributor of four-wheel-drive and light commercial vehicle accessories. The company's share price is changing hands 2.96% higher on Wednesday afternoon. At the time of writing, the shares are trading at $34.75 a piece. Like Amotiv, ARB's share price is 10.78% lower for the year.
Macquarie has an outperform rating on the stock and a 12-month target price of $43.70. At the time of writing, this represents a potential 25.8% increase for investors.
Eagers Automotive Ltd (ASX: APE)
Eagers Automotive is the largest automotive retailing group in the Australian market. The company's share price is in the red on Wednesday afternoon, down 0.05% at the time of writing to $20.07 per share. Over the year, the share price has climbed an impressive 99.3%.
The broker has an outperform rating on the stock and a $20.60 12-month target price. At the time of writing, this represents a potential 2.6% upside for investors.
Autosports Group Ltd (ASX: ASG)
Autosports is a leading retailer of prestige and luxury cars. Its core business focuses on the sale of new and used motor vehicles. It also provides finance and insurance products on behalf of retail financiers and automotive insurers.
The company's share price is 1.16% lower at $2.56 at the time of writing. Over the year, the share price is 24.88% higher.
The broker has an outperform rating on the stock and a $2.82 target price, which represents a potential 10.2% upside for investors over the next 12 months.
What does the broker have to say?
For automotive dealers, the broker expects UPBT (Unadjusted Profit Before Taxes) margins have now bottomed, given broadly right-sized inventory and rate cuts providing bailment relief.
"It is unlikely the full benefit of further rate cuts is fully factored into consensus earnings. Every 25bp rate cut provides a ~$6.3m/$2.1m annualised benefit for APE/ASG's interest costs. We have an OP on APE and ASG," Macquarie said.
"APE is our preference given: 1) scale; 2) brand diversity; 3) BYD opportunity; 4) LT margin upside; and 5) potential offshore expansion. APE should achieve its larger than typical 2H skew of ~54%, supported by: 1) rate cuts ($6.3m 2H benefit); 2) Toyota incentive payments (~ $15-18m); and 3) BYD outperforming. 4.6k BYDs were delivered in CY25 YTD to 28.0k. This is 93% of APE's CY25 30k BYD volume guidance."
For the 4×4 accessories market, the broker says July 2025 volumes were flat to softer across many key models.
"The Prado dynamic drove our 4×4/ ARB index up +6.8% yoy in Jul'25, while our APG/AOV index declined -5.0%. Volumes in APG's top 20 and also key 4×4 models, where it overindexes in revenue per vehicle, have improved over the last few months, but remain volatile," the broker said.
"Light Commercial vehicles as a % of total sales have reduced from 24.1% in CY21 to 22.2% in CY25. We have an OP on AOV and ARB. AOV's val is attractive (~10x FY26e PE) and we remain positive on ARB's offshore growth opportunities (~24x FY26e PE)."
