While none of the European automakers manage to pass our knowledge leaders screen, today's news prompted us to take a closer look at the group.
Most members of the sub-industry managed to perform well over the last year:
Valuations for the group have risen briskly in the last couple of years:
But mostly due to an outlier (Porsche):
On the balance sheet, debt has fallen over the last few years-- but so has investment in intellectual property:
(Net Debt as a % Capital)
(Intellectual Property as a % Assets)
More specifically, we see that BMW and Volkswagen are investing the most (R&D as a % of Sales) while Porsche, Fiat, and Renault lag the group:
Volkswagen also stands out with respect to profitability metrics such as ROIC:
Finally, in our point-and-figure chart work, the majority of this group's constituents appear to be attempting to break out of long established trading range patterns:
