Asbury reports record Q2 net income of $152 million

Asbury Automotive Group Inc. more than tripled net income in the second quarter, continuing a streak of landmark results among the public dealership groups galvanized by higher vehicle profits during the microchip shortage and favorable year-over-year comparisons with the early period of the coronavirus pandemic.

Net income soared to a record-high $152.1 million for Asbury, the sixth-largest U.S. new-vehicle retailer reported Tuesday, up from $49.6 million in the second quarter of 2020 and $54.9 million in that period of 2019.

The group reported revenue of $2.58 billion in the quarter, a 79 percent increase from the prior year.

Asbury CEO David Hult said in a statement the company was also "tracking well" on its path to more than double in size by 2025.

"This quarter, new inventory supply continued to be unpredictable, but our teams met the challenge and performed at record levels in revenue, volume, margins, net income" and earnings per share, Hult said. "In addition to this record performance, our online car buying platform, Clicklane, now fully active across all of our dealerships for the entire quarter, is exceeding our expectations, with its growth trajectory ahead of target."

The Duluth, Ga., company's five-year plan, rolled out alongside Clicklane in December, is to reach $20 billion in annualized revenue with same-store growth of $2 billion, $5 billion in revenue from Clicklane and $5 billion in acquisitions. Asbury's full-year revenue in 2020 was $8 billion.

Asbury's core business lines improved across the board, with double-digit percentage growth in finance and insurance and parts and service. New-vehicle sales jumped 58 percent and used-vehicle sales grew 46 percent compared with the year-earlier quarter.

Record: Net income of $152.1 million; adjusted earnings per share of $7.78, up from $2.52.

Sales: New-vehicle sales rose 58 percent to 31,725. Used-vehicle sales rose 46 percent to 26,856.

Same store sales: Same-store new-vehicle sales skyrocketed 42 percent to 28,093, falling short of the 49 percent rise for all U.S. new light-vehicle sales in the second quarter, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center. Same-store used-vehicle sales rose 29 percent to 23,267.

Asbury ranks No. 6 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., with retail sales of 95,165 new vehicles in 2020.