Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD) Releases FY17 Earnings Guidance

Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD) updated its FY17 earnings guidance on Friday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $8.35-8.50 for the period, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus earnings per share estimate of $8.30. The company issued revenue guidance of $9.6-9.9 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $9.63 billion.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America Corporation lowered Lithia Motors from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and set a $92.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an overweight rating and set a $116.00 price objective (up from $106.00) on shares of Lithia Motors in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Zacks Investment Research lowered Lithia Motors from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. BidaskClub upgraded Lithia Motors from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, July 5th. Finally, Jefferies Group LLC restated a buy rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Lithia Motors in a report on Wednesday, June 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Lithia Motors currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $109.17.

Shares of Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD) traded down 1.27% during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $103.02. The company had a trading volume of 222,784 shares. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.42 and a beta of 1.73. Lithia Motors, Inc. has a 52 week low of $75.85 and a 52 week high of $109.42. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $99.04 and a 200 day moving average of $94.05.

Lithia Motors (NYSE:LAD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 28th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $2.23 by $0.05. Lithia Motors had a return on equity of 21.66% and a net margin of 2.26%. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.96 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Lithia Motors, Inc. will post $8.62 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 9th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.05%. Lithia Motors’s payout ratio is currently 13.01%.

In other news, CEO Bryan B. Deboer sold 316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.19, for a total transaction of $30,712.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 113,867 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,066,733.73. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Bryan B. Deboer sold 11,514 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.76, for a total value of $1,114,094.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 102,353 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,903,676.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 209,296 shares of company stock worth $20,951,694 over the last three months. 7.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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About Lithia Motors

Lithia Motors, Inc is an operator of automotive franchises and a retailer of new and used vehicles and related services. As of February 28, 2017, it offered 30 brands of new vehicles and all brands of used vehicles in 154 stores in the United States and online at Lithia.com, DCHauto.com and CarboneCars.com.