Driven Brands

Driven Brands carries $1.9 billion of long-term debt on a company worth about $2 billion.

If you own DRVN, you need to watch debt and trust, not just cheap earnings.

drvn

consumer mid cap updated jan 16, 2026
$14.98
market cap ~$2B · 52-week range $11–$20
xvary composite: 48 / 100 · below average
our overall rating — combines growth, value, risk, and momentum
Start here if you're new
what it is
Driven Brands runs the places you use to change oil, fix dents, repair glass, and wash your car.
how it gets paid
Last year Driven Brands made $2.3B in revenue. Take 5 Oil Change was the main engine at $1.32B, or 57% of sales.
what just happened
Driven Brands posted Q3 revenue of $535.7M and EPS of $0.34, with EPS ahead of the $0.31 consensus.
At a glance
B++ balance sheet — above average — nothing keeping you up at night
12.0x trailing p/e — the market's not buying it — or you found a deal
9.5% return on capital — nothing to write home about
xvary composite: 48/100 — below average
$1.35 fy2026 eps est
What they do
Driven Brands runs the places you use to change oil, fix dents, repair glass, and wash your car.
This business wins on convenience and repetition. It has about 5,200 locations across 49 U.S. states and 13 countries, so your next oil change is usually close by. Franchised base → other people fund many store openings → so what: Driven can add locations without carrying every buildout cost itself.
consumer mid-cap franchise auto-services take5
How they make money
$2.3B annual revenue
Take 5 Oil Change
$1.32B
+6.8%
Maintenance & Repair
$0.42B
+6.6%
Paint & Collision
$0.28B
+6.6%
Glass Services
$0.16B
+6.6%
Car Wash
$0.12B
+6.6%
The products that matter
automated and express car washes
Car Wash
$1.1B revenue
it is the largest segment, and recent reports put gross margin at 41.85%. That matters because scale only helps if each wash still throws off solid gross profit.
41.85% margin
oil changes and basic service
Maintenance
$0.8B revenue
this is a $0.8B business tied to repeat maintenance, not one-off purchases. If customers keep coming in for routine service, revenue holds up better than a pure discretionary concept.
$0.8B sales
auto body repair and painting
Paint & Collision
$0.4B revenue
it is the smallest of the three at $0.4B. The ticket size is higher, but the mix tells you this is support revenue, not the engine that drives the whole story.
$0.4B sales
Key numbers
$1.9B
long-term debt
This matters because the debt stack is almost as large as the company's roughly $2 billion market value.
35.0%
Take 5 margin
Adjusted EBITDA margin → cash profit before interest, taxes, and accounting noise → so what: Take 5 is doing the heavy lifting.
12.0x
trailing p/e
You are paying 12 times trailing earnings, which looks cheap until you put it next to the debt load and accounting cleanup.
44%
debt/capital
Nearly half the capital stack is debt, which limits flexibility if growth slows.
Financial health
B++
strength
  • balance sheet grade B++ — above average financial health
  • risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
  • price stability 35 / 100
  • long-term debt $1.9B (44% of capital)
  • net profit margin 9.5% — keeps 10 cents of every dollar in revenue
  • return on equity 28% — $0.28 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B++ — return on equity looks solid but long-term debt needs watching.
Total return vs. market

Return history isn't available for DRVN right now.

same standard. no invented return math.

source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
beat estimates
Driven Brands posted Q3 revenue of $535.7M and EPS of $0.34, with EPS ahead of the $0.31 consensus.
The quarter was driven by Take 5 Oil Change, which delivered $306.4 million of revenue, 6.8% same-store-sales growth, and a 35.0% adjusted EBITDA margin. Revenue rose 6.6% from the prior-year quarter.
$535.7M
revenue
$0.34
eps
41.85%
gross margin
the number that mattered
The key number was $306.4 million from Take 5, because one concept generated 57.2% of quarterly revenue and carried a 35.0% segment margin.
source: company earnings report, 2026

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What could go wrong

the top risk is the 2023–2025 accounting restatement and what it says about internal controls.

!
high
accounting restatement and credibility damage
The audit committee found material errors in previously issued financial statements for 2023, 2024, and parts of 2025. When three reporting periods need repair, investors stop giving the company the benefit of the doubt.
This already took the stock from $16.61 to $9.99 in one day. That is the market pricing a credibility discount in real time.
!
high
$1.9B debt load
Long-term debt equals 44% of capital. That does not mean the balance sheet breaks tomorrow. It means a long filing delay or weaker cleaned-up earnings would hit equity holders first.
If debt stays high while confidence stays low, the stock keeps trading like a financing problem instead of an operating business.
∘
med
traffic softness in discretionary services
Car washes and some maintenance visits can be delayed. If consumer spending tightens, lower ticket volume shows up fast across a 5,000-location network.
41.85% gross margin looks good on paper. It matters less if same-store demand slips and fixed costs stop getting spread across full bays.
A business with $3B of revenue and 41.85% gross margin can survive a soft patch. A business with those numbers plus a three-period restatement and $1.9B of debt gets valued on trust first and growth second.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
calendar
restatement completion
This is the next real catalyst. Until corrected filings land, every valuation argument sits on top of numbers the company already said need repair.
metric
same-store demand
With more than 5,000 locations, small changes in traffic matter. Watch whether customers keep paying for washes, oil changes, and repairs at the same pace.
risk
debt reduction progress
Management aims to get leverage below 3x by the end of 2026. In plain English: you want to see $1.9B of debt look smaller against the business, not more permanent.
trend
gross margin staying near 41.85%
If the cleaned-up numbers still show gross margin near 41.85%, the operating core is intact. If margin slips with the filings, the bear case gets another leg.
Analyst rankings
short-term outlook
below average
momentum score 4 — in human-speak, analysts think the stock has more repair work than near-term momentum.
risk profile
average
stability score 3 — this is not the safest name in your portfolio, but it is not an obvious collapse story either.
chart momentum
average
technical score 3 — the chart is no longer about momentum. It is about whether the next filing rebuilds confidence.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity

institutions have been net buying for 3 consecutive quarters — 97 buyers vs. 89 sellers in 3q2025. total institutional holdings: 70.8M shares. net buying for 3 quarters.

source: institutional data · 1q2025-3q2025
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$12 $22
$15 current price
$17 target midpoint · +13% from current · 3-5yr high: $35 (+135% · 25% ann'l return)
source: institutional data · analyst targets

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