Lithia Reports Adjusted EPS of $1.74 for Fourth Quarter 2015 and $7.02 for Full Year 2015; Fourth Quarter Adjusted Net Income Increases 23%
Declares $0.20 per Share Dividend for the Fourth Quarter
(firmenpresse) - MEDFORD, OR -- (Marketwired) -- 02/24/16 -- Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE: LAD) reported the highest fourth quarter and full year adjusted net income in company history and increased adjusted net income 23% for the fourth quarter 2015 over the prior year period.
2015 fourth quarter adjusted net income was $46.1 million or $1.74 per diluted share, compared to 2014 fourth quarter adjusted net income of $37.5 million, or $1.42 per diluted share.
Unadjusted net income for the fourth quarter 2015 was $47.7 million, or $1.80 per diluted share, compared to $41.1 million, or $1.55 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2014. As shown in the attached non-GAAP reconciliation tables, the 2015 fourth quarter adjusted results exclude a $0.06 net non-core benefit related to an equity investment offset by an asset impairment charge. The 2014 fourth quarter adjusted results exclude a $0.13 non-core net benefit from an equity investment and a non-core tax attribute offset by a charge related to acquisition expenses.
Fourth quarter 2015 revenue increased $200.0 million, or 11%, to $2.0 billion from $1.8 billion for the fourth quarter 2014.
Total same store sales increased 9%
New vehicle same store sales increased 7%
Used vehicle retail same store sales increased 12%
Service, body and parts same store sales increased 10%
Same store F&I per unit increased $69 to $1,189
SG&A expense as a percentage of gross profit was 68.2%
For the full year 2015, revenues increased 46% to $7.9 billion from $5.4 billion in 2014.
Total same store sales increased 11%
New vehicle same store sales increased 9%
Used vehicle retail same store sales increased 13%
Service, body and parts same store sales increased 10%
Same store F&I per unit increased $73 to $1,244
Adjusted SG&A expense as a percentage of gross profit was 67.9%
"2015 finished ahead of our expectations," said Bryan DeBoer, President and CEO. "Despite significant headwinds reported by some in the industry, our store leaders successfully responded to their local market conditions. As a result of their efforts, we achieved our third and fourth EPS milestones by exceeding $7.00 per share in 2015. Our entrepreneurial culture, where each store has the autonomy to make individual decisions, will drive continued operational improvement. This improvement, along with growth through acquisitions, will be critical to achieving our next milestone of $8.00 per share."
For 2015, adjusted net income per diluted share increased 37% to $7.02 from $5.11 for 2014. Unadjusted net income from continuing operations was $6.91 per diluted share for 2015 compared to $5.14 per diluted share for 2014.
Chris Holzshu, SVP and CFO, said, "We are focused on two primary objectives: efficiently operating our stores and prudently allocating capital. We finished 2015 with adjusted SG&A as a percentage of gross profit at 67.9% and incremental same store throughput of 50%. We also allocated over $46 million in capital to repurchase shares since January 1, 2016. Our preferred use of capital will be growth through acquisitions, but we will look for opportunities to repurchase stock when we deem it to be an attractive use of funds."
As previously announced, since October 2015 we acquired a Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Fiat store in Concord, California; a Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Alpha Fiat in Spokane, Washington; a Subaru store in Riverside, California and a Toyota store in Milford, Massachusetts. We estimate these stores will contribute approximately $200 million in annual revenues.
Bryan DeBoer, President and CEO, stated, "We acquired over $2.7 billion in annual revenues in 2014, and followed that by adding nine stores over the last 14 months with an estimated $380 million in annual revenues. We are excited to have acquired our first stores within the DCH metropolitan strategy on both the east and west coasts of the United States. We are continuing to actively seek acquisitions and anticipate further transactions in both rural and metropolitan markets."
We ended 2015 with $45 million in cash and $134 million in availability under our credit facilities. Additionally, approximately $211 million of our operating real estate is currently unfinanced, which we estimate could provide an additional $159 million in available liquidity, for total potential liquidity of $338 million.
Our Board of Directors has approved a dividend of $0.20 per share related to fourth quarter 2015 financial results. We expect to pay the dividend March 25, 2016 to shareholders of record on March 11, 2016.
Since the fourth quarter 2015, we have repurchased approximately 595,000 shares at a weighted average price of $79.11 per share. Under our existing share repurchase authorization, approximately 676,000 shares remain available for purchase.
We project 2016 first quarter earnings of $1.47 to $1.51 per diluted share and 2016 full year earnings of $7.30 to $7.50 per diluted share. Both projections are based on the following annual assumptions:
Total revenues of $8.4 to $8.5 billion
New vehicle sales increasing 5.5%
New vehicle gross margin of 5.8% to 6.0%
Used vehicle sales increasing 6.0%
Used vehicle gross margin of 12.4% to 12.6%
Service body and parts sales increasing 5.0%
Service body and parts gross margin of 49.0% to 49.4%
Finance and insurance gross profit of $1,210 per unit
Tax rate of 40.0%
Average diluted shares outstanding of 26.0 million
These projections exclude the impact of future acquisitions, dispositions and non-core items. Actual results may be affected by items described under Forward-Looking Statements below.
The fourth quarter conference call may be accessed at 10:00 a.m. ET today by telephone at 877-407-8029. An updated presentation highlighting the fourth quarter results has been added to .
To listen live on our website or for replay, visit and click on webcasts.
Lithia Motors, Inc. is one of the largest automotive retailers in the United States. Lithia sells 31 brands of new vehicles and all brands of used vehicles at 139 stores in 15 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," "goal," "strategy," "future," "maintain," "continue," "remain," "target" or "will" and similar references to future periods. Examples of forward-looking statements in this press release include, among others, statements regarding:
Expected operating results, such as improved store efficiency and performance; generating 2016 first quarter earnings per share of $1.47 to $1.51 per diluted share and 2016 full year earnings of $7.30 to $7.50 per diluted share and all projections set forth under the headings "2016 Outlook";
The increase in our annual revenues that we estimate will result from dealerships that we acquired;
Anticipated ability to improve store performance;
Anticipated additions of dealership locations to our portfolio in the future; and
Anticipated availability of liquidity from our credit facility and unfinanced operating real estate.
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 industry 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 throughout Part II, Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, and from time to time in our other 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 Chief Accounting Officer
(541) 618-5748
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Datum: 24.02.2016 - 11:55 Uhr
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