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AutoNation Sales Up 13%

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By: Zacks Equity Research
July 09, 2010 | Comment(s): 0
Recommended this article (6)
AN | MTLQQ | F | TM | HMC | NSANY
AutoNation Inc. (AN - Analyst Report) showed a 13% rise in retail new vehicle sales to 16,153 units last month, driven by strong growth in its Domestic brands. Sales of the Domestic brands, which comprise stores that sell vehicles manufactured by General Motors (MTLQQ), Ford Motor Co. (F - Analyst Report) and Chrysler LLC, advanced 23% to 4,805 units, thereby accounting for 30% of new vehicle sales.

Sales of the Import brands, comprising stores that sell vehicles manufactured primarily by Toyota Motor Corp. (TM - Analyst Report), Honda Motor Co. (HMC - Analyst Report) and Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY - Analyst Report), increased 4% to 8,328 units. Meanwhile, sales of the Premium Luxury brands, comprising stores that sell vehicles by Daimler AG’s Mercedes Benz, BMW and Toyota Lexus, escalated 25% to 3,020 units.

During the month under study, auto sales in the U.S. grew 14.4% to 981,258 vehicles. However, sales in terms of seasonally adjusted annual rate ("SAAR") were gloomy on a sequential basis.

As per Ward’s autodata, light vehicle sales in June stood at 11.08 million units at SAAR, the lowest since February this year. Despite being up 14% from June 2009, SAAR sales declined 4.6% from May. This signified a fall in consumer confidence in the economy based on high unemployment and lower home values.

In the first quarter of 2010, AutoNation showed a 55% increase in profits to $58 million or 34 cents per share from $40 million or 22 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. With this, the automotive retailer has exactly met the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Revenues in the quarter appreciated 19% to $2.8 billion, driven by a marked improvement of 24% in the new and used retail vehicle revenues. New retail vehicle revenue escalated 24% to $1.47 billion. This translated into revenue per vehicle of $32,253, an increase of 4% from the year-ago level.

AutoNation is the largest automotive retailer in the U.S. and is about twice the size of its nearest competitor. As of March 31, 2009 , the company owned and operated 249 new vehicle franchises from 204 dealerships located in major metropolitan markets in 15 states. We continue to recommend the shares of the company as Hold (Zacks #3 Rank) in the short term (1–3 months) and Neutral in the long term (6+ months).

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Read the full analyst report on NSANY

 

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