Asbury Q2 net income slips 2.5%, but decline much less than Q1 despite fewer stores

Last year, Asbury sold four locations in the first quarter and three more in the second quarter to comply with Toyota and Lexus regional store count limits in the wake of its December 2021 purchases of Larry H. Miller Dealerships and Stevinson Automotive. Asbury sold nine more dealerships during the fourth quarter, a transaction Hult said represented “an opportunity” and involved a “fair price” but also was done in anticipation of a large acquisition that failed to materialize.

This year on May 15, the midpoint of the second quarter, Asbury sold David McDavid Acura in Austin, Texas, to Umansky Automotive Group of Memphis, Tenn.

Asbury said Tuesday that it earned $10.2 million from divestitures during the quarter.

On a same-store basis, Asbury’s second-quarter revenue declined 0.9 percent from a year earlier to $3.7 billion, while its gross profit dropped 7.1 percent to $711.8 million.

Highlights from Asbury’s second-quarter earnings report include:

Q2 revenue: $3.7 billion, down 5.3 percent from a year earlier

Q2 net income: $196.4 million, down 2.5 percent from a year earlier

Q2 adjusted net income: $188 million, down 16 percent

Sales: 38,260 new vehicles, down 1.1 percent; 31,623 used vehicles, down 21 percent

Asbury, of Duluth, Ga., ranks No. 5 on Automotive News‘ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., with retail sales of 151,179 new vehicles in 2022.