AutoNation Shares Spike After Earnings Report Shows New Vehicle Sales Increased In Q1

AutoNation Inc AN stock is trading higher by more than 10.5%, at $177.44 per share on last check Friday.

The movement comes on the heels of a reported first-quarter 2024 sales growth of 1% year-on-year to $6.48 billion. That slightly misses the analyst consensus estimate of $6.49 billion.

Continued growth in after-sales and increased New Vehicle revenue more than offset lower Used Vehicle revenue.

New vehicle retail unit sales increased 7%, and used vehicle retail unit sales declined grew 2%.

Segment income from Domestic fell 37% Y/Y, Import dropped 20%, and Premium Luxury dropped 24%.

Gross profit declined 7% Y/Y to $1.19 billion, and the gross profit margin contracted 160 basis points Y/Y to 18.5%. After-sales gross profit increased 9% to $556 million.

Operating margin for the quarter was 5.2%, and the operating income was $340.3 million, a 23.2% decrease Y/Y.

EPS of $4.49 beat the consensus estimate of $4.27.

Cash and equivalents totaled $60.3 million as of March 31, 2024. Year-to-date through April 24, 2024, AutoNation had repurchased 1.6 million shares for an aggregate purchase price of $250 million.

The Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to an additional $1 billion of common stock under its share repurchase program and has approximately $1.1 billion under the program.

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