logo-loader

Lithia Motors easily beats second quarter expectations, raises guidance

Published: 11:33 27 Jul 2011 EDT

no_picture_pai

 

Lithia Motors Inc (NYSE:LAD) announced Wednesday its second quarter earnings, which pulled from a loss in the year-ago period to beat Street estimates, prompting the company to update its third quarter outlook.

For the three months ending June 30, Lithia posted net income of $14.8 million, or $0.55 per share, compared to a $1.7 million loss, or a 7-cent loss per share, a year ago.

Revenues rose 30% to $689.1 million, from $530.2 million in the year-ago period.

Analysts had anticipated earnings of $0.35 per share, on $635.48 million in revenues.

"We had a better than expected quarter, with revenue up 30% year over year, and the highest second quarter earnings per share since 2006," said CEO Sid DeBoer.

"We continue to build on the momentum we have created over the past 24 months through our philosophy of continuous improvement."

Still, the company warned of wavering sales in the third quarter, as gas prices fluctuate, unemployment rates remain low, and the March earthquake in Japan continues to reduce vehicle availability.

However, Lithia said it expects new vehicle inventories to recover to normal by the first quarter of 2012.

With that, the automotive retailer released an updated outlook of earnings between $0.45 and $0.47 per share for the third quarter, and an anticipated range of $1.67 to $1.73 per share for fiscal 2011.

Lithia also said it expects revenues in the range of $2.6 billion to $2.7 billion for the full year.

The company's guidance is well above expectations - analysts anticipated earnings of $1.48 per share on $2.55 billion in revenues for the year.

Same store sales, for those locations open at least one year, rose 24% for new vehicle sellers, hiked 16% for used car lots, and increased 5% for service, body and parts locations.

Throughout the quarter, Lithia sold 28.4% more new cars than it did a year ago - 11,061 units, contributing $357.6 million, or 51.9% of the company's total revenues. 

Used car sales rose 20.2% to 10,320 units, providing $180 million, or 26.1% of revenue.

The company's service, body and parts segment drew in $83.1 million, up 16.7% from the year-ago period, or 12.1% of all sales.

Lithia, whose stock on the New York Stock Exchange hiked 7.09% to trade at $23.27 per share as of 11:27 am EDT, also announced its board of directors approved a $0.07 dividend per share, payable on August 25.


 

Rush Rare Metals Advances Two Key Projects: Uranium in Wyoming and Niobium...

Rush Rare Metals CEO Peter Smith joined Steve Darling from Proactive to share news about the mineral exploration company's focus on its Boxi Property in Quebec and the Copper Mountain Project in Wyoming. The company recently announced the staking of the Knob claims in Wyoming, comprising 52...

23 minutes ago