Vehicles will go on sale April 21, 2022 at AutoNation car dealerships in Valencia, CA.
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Solid fourth quarter earnings report from autonation On Friday, it pushed auto dealer stocks to all-time highs, the best day in nearly three years.
Florida-based Dealer Group reported adjusted earnings per share of $6.37 and revenue of $6.7 billion in the prior quarter. That matches analysts’ expectations of $5.83 a share and $6.5 billion in revenue, according to Refinitiv.
AutoNation closed at $157.30 per share on Friday, marking a new high for auto dealer shares after gaining 11.4% at the end of the week. This was the best daily performance since April 2020 and the best ever closing price.
The increase follows AutoNation, which repurchased 15.6 million shares, including 4.6 million shares in the fourth quarter of last year, and reduced its shares outstanding by 25%.
AutoNation CEO Mike Manley attributes strong quarter and record year earnings to operational execution and all-time earnings in aftersales and customer finance .
“This year we expanded our footprint, introduced additional transportation solutions and leveraged our strong cash flow to fund our investments and return capital to our shareholders,” said Manley. . mentioned in the release.
AutoNation’s 2022 operating cash flow was a record $1.7 billion. Last year’s net income was roughly flat from 2021, despite a 26% drop in the fourth quarter to $286.4 million for him.
AutoNation stock over the last five years.
Major dealers such as AutoNation are reporting record results during the coronavirus pandemic. Consumer demand remained resilient, but new car inventories were at record lows due to production disruptions due to the global health crisis and supply chain issues.
This situation has led AutoNation to turn to selling more used cars than new cars during the pandemic as people who could not afford or find new cars moved into the used car market. bottom. This has pushed prices to new all-time highs and increased profits on used car sales.
In recent months, vehicle inventories of many car brands have slowly increased. However, hurdles remain and Wall Street is watching for a ‘demand destruction’ scenario in which the demand built up over the past three years is exhausted.
AutoNation did not release guidance for 2023. Manley told Automotive News He expects seasonally adjusted annual sales of nearly 15 million units this year, up from 13.7 million in 2022.
“For the foreseeable future, I think the retail industry will continue to evolve, including how customers approach car ownership and use,” he said on Friday’s earnings call. It is an exciting time to be joining the segment and we believe the evolving environment offers many opportunities.”
