By Denny Jacob
Lithia & Driveway said its quarterly revenue grew by a fifth, beating market forecasts, and touted its first profitable year for the auto retailer's financing operations, sending shares higher.
The Medford, Ore., company Wednesday posted net income of $216.2 million, or $8.12 a share, up from $213.4 million, or $7.74 a share, a year earlier.
Stripping out certain one-time items, earnings came in at $7.79 a share, ahead of the average forecast for $7.17 a share from analysts polled by Factset. Insurance proceeds from a business-interruption claim, partially offset by foreign-exchange losses, boosted earnings per share by 17 cents.
Revenue rose 20.2% to $9.22 billion, the highest in the company's history, also beating the $9.08 billion expected by analysts.
Lithia said 2024 was the first profitable year for its Driveway Finance business. The company in January of this year expanded its Mid-Atlantic network with the purchase of a Subaru store in Virginia, which will add an expected $80 million of annual revenue.
Shares rose 7% to $394.80 in premarket trading.
Write to Denny Jacob at denny.jacob@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 12, 2025 08:02 ET (13:02 GMT)
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