Lithia Motors Earnings: Everything You Must Know Now

Lithia Motors Inc. (NYSE:LAD) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, AND beat the revenue expectation. The revenue beat is a positive sign to shareholders seeking high growth out of the company.

Lithia Motors Inc. Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased 51.02% to $0.74 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.49 in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 27.92% to $877.4 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Lithia Motors Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.74 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.66. It beat the average revenue estimate of $824.92 million.

Quoting Management: “We grew total same store revenue 23% in 2012,” said Bryan DeBoer, President and CEO. “This is on top of total same store revenue increases of 22% in 2011 and 18% in 2010. Most automotive analysts believe a multi-year recovery in auto sales remains ahead of us, and many of the western markets we do business in are still significantly below peak registration levels experienced in 2005 and 2006. Our store leaders continue to challenge their teams and remain driven to improve store performance in 2013 and beyond.”

Key Stats (on next page)…