DULUTH, Ga. -

Asbury Automotive Group established another record used-to-new sales ratio during the third quarter, when the group saw its used-vehicle retail revenues shoot up 19 percent, including 14 percent from same-store results.

Asbury reported adjusted income of $14.3 million Wednesday, or 44 cents per diluted share. In the same quarter a year earlier, the company’s adjusted income from continuing operations was $12.7 million, or 39 cents per diluted share.

The year-over-year change represented a 13-percent increase per diluted share.

Executives shared their third-quarter net income came in at $12.3 million, or 38 cents per diluted share, levels nearly flat from the year-ago quarter when Asbury generated $12.5 million, or 38 cents per diluted share.

Asbury went on to share more third-quarter performance highlights, compared to the prior-year period:

—Total revenues increased 5 percent to $1.1 billion.
—New-vehicle gross profit increased 12 percent, including 8 percent from same store results.
—Finance and insurance revenues were up 19 percent.
—Total gross profit was up 10 percent with increases from all business lines.

Beyond its sales and revenue trends, Asbury used its third-quarter financial report to touch on several other strategic updates it’s making. The moves include:

—Reduced debt $49 million; third quarter leverage at 3.2x Total Debt/Adjusted EBITDA compared to 3.6x at the end of the second quarter.
—Repurchased $14 million of Asbury common stock during the quarter; repurchased nearly 6 percent of our common shares outstanding year-to-date.
—Purchased $16 million of real estate in anticipation of future lease expirations.
—Entered into a new $900 million five-year syndicated credit facility; approximately $2 million in estimated pre-tax annualized floor plan interest expense savings based on quarter-end floor plan balances.
—80 percent of the DMS conversions completed to date.

Nine-Month Performance

For the nine months that ended Sept. 30, Asbury indicated its adjusted income from continuing operations came in at $42.4 million, or $1.29 per diluted share, versus $34.7 million, or $1.05 per diluted share, in the prior-year period.

The company tabulated its net income for the nine months of 2011 rose to $46.4 million or $1.41 per diluted share from $32.7 million, or 98 cents per diluted share, a year earlier.

Furthermore, Asbury said its revenue through three quarters of the year is 10 percent higher than last year, totaling $3.2 billion

Executive Reaction

After delving into all of the figures, Asbury president and chief executive officer Craig Monaghan stated, “Asbury is pleased to announce another quarter of double-digit growth in adjusted EPS from continuing operations.

“We produced these excellent results during a quarter that was significantly impacted by a limited supply of Japanese-branded new vehicle inventory,” he continued. “We set another company record used-to-new sales ratio, generated strong gross profits from our new vehicle sales and continued growing our finance and insurance profit per vehicle retailed.

“The third quarter provides another example of our associates’ ability to increase profitability by reacting quickly to changing market dynamics and nimbly shifting business strategies,” Monaghan went on to say. “On top of our stores’ excellent operating performance, we continued to aggressively strengthen our balance sheet by paying down debt in order to improve our flexibility and better prepare the company for future growth.”

Adding his commentary to the financial update was Michael Kearney, Asbury’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

“Our Japanese-branded dealerships experienced the full impact of the inventory shortages during the third quarter with a number of these dealerships operating on only two weeks supply of new vehicle inventory,” Kearney acknowledged.

“We are now beginning to experience levels of Japanese-branded new vehicle inventory supply that are more appropriately aligned with consumer demand, and we anticipate rebuilding these inventory levels through the first quarter of 2012,” he projected.