Lithia Motors Reports EPS of $0.84 for First Quarter 2013, an Increase of 42% Over Prior Year Adjusted EPS; Increases 2013 Outlook
(firmenpresse) - MEDFORD, OR -- (Marketwired) -- 04/24/13 -- Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE: LAD) today reported 2013 first quarter income from continuing operations was $21.9 million, or $0.84 per diluted share. This compares to 2012 first quarter adjusted income from continuing operations of $15.6 million, or $0.59 per diluted share.
New vehicle same store sales increased 22%
Used vehicle retail same store sales increased 22%
Service, body and parts same store sales increased 7%
SG&A expense as a percentage of gross profit was 69%
First quarter 2013 revenue from continuing operations increased $164.9 million, or 22%, to $903.1 million from $738.2 million in the first quarter of 2012.
"We grew quarterly EPS 42% over the adjusted prior year," said Bryan DeBoer, President and CEO. "Total same store sales increased 19% in 2013, on top of an increase of 21% in 2012. We are pleased with our performance in the service, body and parts business, which increased 7% on a same store basis, despite two fewer selling days in 2013 compared to 2012. Warranty sales increased over 9% for the second consecutive quarter, suggesting that the number of vehicles eligible for warranty repair is growing."
We did not have any adjustments to the 2013 first quarter results from continuing operations. As shown in the attached reconciliation table, the 2012 first quarter adjusted results from continuing operations exclude a net benefit of $0.04 per share for an asset impairment charge, the gain on the disposal of assets, an adjustment to an investment and a non-core tax attribute. Unadjusted, net income from continuing operations for the first quarter of 2012 was $16.6 million, or $0.63 per diluted share.
Commenting on SG&A performance, Chris Holzshu, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, stated, "Cost control remains a key initiative to drive earnings growth. Our incremental throughput, or the percentage of additional gross profit dollars that flow to operating income, was 49% on a same store basis in the first quarter. This was just shy of our objective of 50%. We are focused on effective spending in personnel and advertising, which make up the majority of controllable SG&A expense."
On April 11, 2013, Lithia was granted a new franchise to sell MINI vehicles in Anchorage, Alaska. The store will be located next to our Anchorage BMW location.
"Developing strong relationships with our manufacturer partners is a key to our success," said Bryan DeBoer. "We appreciate the vote of confidence from MINI in awarding us the franchise. By understanding our customers and increasing our share of vehicles sold in each market we serve, we hope to find additional opportunities with manufacturers in the future."
During the first quarter, we repurchased 127,900 shares of our Class A common stock at a weighted average price of $40.76 per share. Our total remaining repurchase authorization is 1,726,953 shares.
We ended the first quarter with $15 million in cash and $151 million in available credit on our credit facilities. Additionally, approximately $149 million of operating real estate is currently unfinanced, which could provide up to an additional $112 million in available liquidity, for total liquidity of $278 million.
In March, we strategically retired $26 million in mortgages. As a result, we have $165 million in mortgage debt outstanding, of which 78% are fixed rate mortgages. Our nearest maturities, totaling $29 million, are in 2016. We have no convertible notes or high-yield debt outstanding.
We project 2013 second quarter earnings of $0.86 to $0.88 per diluted share and full-year 2013 earnings of $3.48 to $3.55 per diluted share. Both projections are based on the following annual assumptions:
Total revenues of $3.8 to $3.9 billion
New vehicle same store sales increasing 15.5%
New vehicle gross margin of 6.9% to 7.1%
Used vehicle same store sales increasing 13.0%
Used vehicle gross margin of 14.3% to 14.5%
Service body and parts same store sales increasing 7.0%
Service body and parts gross margin of 48.2% to 48.4%
Finance and insurance gross profit of $1,100 per unit
Tax rate of 39.5%
Average diluted shares outstanding of 26.5 million
Capital expenditures of $55 million
Guidance excludes the impact of future acquisitions, dispositions, and any potential non-core items
The first quarter conference call may be accessed at 10:00 a.m. ET today by telephone at 877-407-8029. An updated presentation highlighting the first quarter results has been added to .
To listen live on our website or for replay, visit and click on webcasts. A playback of the conference call will be available on April 24, 2013 through May 8, 2013 by calling 877-660-6853 (Conference ID: 412411).
Lithia Motors, Inc. is the ninth largest automotive retailer in the United States. Lithia sells 27 brands of new vehicles and all brands of used vehicles at 88 stores in 11 states. Lithia also arranges finance, warranty, and credit insurance contracts; and provides vehicle parts, maintenance, and repair services at all of its locations.
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This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "Safe-Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements include statements regarding our goals, plans, projections and guidance regarding our financial position, results of operations, market position, pending and potential future acquisitions and business strategy, and often contain words such as "project," "outlook," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "estimate," "may," "seek," "would," "should," "likely," or "will" and similar references to future periods. Examples of forward-looking statements in this press release include our outlook of earnings per share results and the assumptions that underlie them.
By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events that depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and our actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity and development of the industries in which we operate may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements in this press release. The risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from estimated or projected results include without limitation, future economic and financial conditions (both nationally and locally), changes in customer demand, our relationship with, and the financial and operational stability of, vehicle manufacturers and other suppliers, risks associated with our indebtedness (including available borrowing capacity, compliance with financial covenants and ability to refinance or repay indebtedness on favorable terms), government regulations, legislation and others set forth from time to time in our filings with the SEC. We urge you to carefully consider this information and not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We undertake no duty to update our forward-looking statements, including our earnings outlook, which are made as of the date of this release.
This press release and the attached financial tables contain non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted net income and diluted earnings per share from continuing operations, adjusted SG&A as a percentage of revenues and gross profit, adjusted operating margin, adjusted operating profit as a percentage of gross profit, and adjusted pre-tax margin. Non-GAAP measures do not have definitions under GAAP and may be defined differently by and not comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. As a result, we review any non-GAAP financial measures in connection with a review of the most directly comparable measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. We caution you not to place undue reliance on such non-GAAP measures, but also to consider them with the most directly comparable GAAP measures. We present cash flows from operations in the attached tables, adjusted to include the change in non-trade floor plan debt to improve the visibility of cash flows related to vehicle financing. As required by SEC rules, we have reconciled these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in the attachments to this release. We believe the non-GAAP financial measures we present improve the transparency of our disclosures; provide a meaningful presentation of our results from core business operations, because they exclude items not related to core business operations and other non-cash items; and improve the period-to-period comparability of our results from core business operations. These presentations should not be considered an alternative to GAAP measures.
Contact:
John North
VP Finance and Controller
(541) 618-5748
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Datum: 24.04.2013 - 05:31 Uhr
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