NSANY Nissan Motor Company Ltd (PK)

AutoNation Inc. (AN) revealed a 4% fall in new vehicle sales to 18,949 units in July due to a sluggish economy as the economy expanded at a 1.3% annual rate in the second quarter of 2011 as well as the adverse impact from the earthquake in Japan on March 11.

Sales of the Domestic brands, which comprise stores that sell vehicles manufactured by General Motors (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F) and Chrysler LLC, inched up 3% to 6,142 units.

Sales of the Import brands, comprising stores that sell vehicles manufactured primarily by Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Honda Motor Co. (HMC) and Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY) dipped 12% to 9,323 units due to the parts-supply problem emanating from the natural catastrophe in Japan.

Meanwhile, sales of the Premium Luxury brands, comprising stores that sell vehicles including Daimler AG’s (DDAIF) Mercedes Benz, BMW and Toyota Lexus, rose 11% to 3,484 units.

Last month, auto sales in the U.S. went up marginally by 0.9% to 1.06 million vehicles. Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted rate of sales was 12.2 million units in July.

AutoNation, a Zacks #3 Rank (Hold) stock, posted 18% rise in profits to $73 million or 49 cents per share (excluding an adjustment related to debt-refinancing costs) in the second quarter of 2011 from $62 million or 38 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. With this, the automotive retailer has inched past the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 47 cents per share.

Revenues in the quarter scaled up 7.5% to $3.34 billion, driven by an increased retail new and used vehicle average selling prices. However, it was lower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.40 billion.

New vehicle revenues rose 5.4% to $1.75 billion. This translated into revenue per vehicle of $33,703, an increase of 5.5% from the year-ago level. The retailer’s new vehicle sales remained flat at 51,824 units compared with 51,840 units a year ago.

On a same-store basis, AutoNation’s new vehicle unit sales dipped 4% to 49,892 units. Based on CNW Research data, industry new retail vehicle unit sales in the U.S. decreased 2% during the quarter under study.

 
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