Vehicles are displayed on the market at an AutoNation automobile dealership on April 21, 2022 in Valencia, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
A stable fourth-quarter earnings report from AutoNation on Friday propelled the automobile vendor’s inventory to a brand new all-time excessive and its finest day in practically three years.
The Florida-based dealership group reported an adjusted earnings per share of $6.37 and income of $6.7 billion for the earlier quarter. That compares to analyst expectations of $5.83 a share and $6.5 billion in income, in keeping with Refinitiv.
AutoNation closed Friday at $157.30 a share, marking a brand new excessive for the auto vendor’s inventory following an 11.4 % improve to finish the week. It was the inventory’s finest every day efficiency since April 2020 and a brand new record-high closing value.
The improve follows AutoNation final 12 months lowering shares excellent by 25% because it repurchased 15.6 million shares, together with 4.6 million in the course of the fourth quarter.
AutoNation CEO Mike Manley attributed the stable quarter and document 12 months of earnings to operational execution in addition to new all-time excessive earnings in after gross sales and buyer financing.
“During the year, we expanded our footprint, introduced additional transportation solutions, and leveraged our strong cash flow to fund investments and return capital to shareholders,” Manley mentioned in a launch.
AutoNation’s 2022 money flows from operations had been a document $1.7 billion. Its internet revenue final 12 months was roughly flat from 2021, regardless of a 26% decline within the fourth quarter to $286.4 million.
AutoNation’s shares over the past 5 years.
Large sellers comparable to AutoNation have been reporting document outcomes in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, as client demand remained resilient however new car inventories had been at document lows because of manufacturing interruptions because of the world well being disaster in addition to provide chain issues.
The circumstances pushed AutoNation to pivot to promote extra used vehicles than new in the course of the pandemic, as those that could not afford or discover a new car moved to the used automobile market. That propelled costs to new document highs and earnings for used car gross sales.
Vehicle inventories have been slowly rising for a lot of auto manufacturers in current months. However, there stay hurdles and Wall Street has been monitoring for a “demand destruction” situation wherein pent-up demand from the previous three years is depleted.
AutoNation didn’t launch steerage for 2023. Manley instructed Automotive News he expects the seasonally adjusted annual charge of light-vehicle gross sales to be shut to fifteen million this 12 months, up from 13.7 million in 2022.
“I think for the foreseeable future, the retail industry will continue to evolve including how customers approach vehicle ownership and usage,” he mentioned throughout an earnings name Friday. “And it’s an exciting time, frankly to be on the segment and we believe the evolving landscape offers many opportunities.”
Source: www.cnbc.com”