Lithia Earnings: What To Look For From LAD

Automotive retailer Lithia Motors (NYSE:LAD) will be reporting results tomorrow morning. Here's what you need to know.

Last quarter Lithia reported revenues of $7.67 billion, up 10.5% year on year, missing analyst expectations by 3.5%. It was a weaker quarter for the company, with a miss of analysts' revenue estimates.

Is Lithia buy or sell heading into the earnings? Read our full analysis here, it's free.

This quarter analysts are expecting Lithia's revenue to grow 22.8% year on year to $8.56 billion, improving on the 4% year-over-year increase in revenue the company had recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $7.88 per share.

The analysts covering the company have had mixed opinions about the business heading into the earnings, with revenue estimates seeing three upward and two downward revisions over the last thirty days.The company missed Wall St's revenue estimates four times over the last two years.

Looking at Lithia's peers in the automotive and marine retail segment, some of them have already reported Q1 earnings results, giving us a hint what we can expect. CarMax's revenues decreased 1.7% year on year, missing analyst estimates by 3.2% and Genuine Parts reported revenues up 0.3% year on year, missing analyst estimates by 1%. CarMax traded down 9.8% on the results, and Genuine Parts was up 12.7%.

Read our full analysis of CarMax's results here and Genuine Parts's results here.

There has been a stampede out of high valuation technology stocks and while some of the automotive and marine retail stocks have fared somewhat better, they have not been spared, with share price declining 7.7% over the last month. Lithia is down 12.2% during the same time, and is heading into the earnings with analyst price target of $346.2, compared to share price of $260.8.

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