Asbury Automotive Group Inc

Good day and welcome to the Q3 2022 earnings call. This conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to hand the call over to Karen Reed. Please go ahead.

Thanks, operator, and good morning, everyone. As noted, today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay later this afternoon. Welcome to Asbury Automotive Group's third quarter 2022 earnings call. The press release detailing Asbury's third quarter results was issued earlier this morning and is posted on our website at investors.asburyauto.com. Participating with me today are David Holt, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Dan Clara, our Senior Vice President of Operations, and Michael Welch, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we will open the call up for questions and will be available later for any follow-up questions. Before we begin, we must remind you that the discussion during the call today is likely to contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements other than those which are historical in nature, which may include financial projections, forecasts, and current expectations, each of which are subject to significant uncertainty. For information regarding certain of the risks that may cause actual results to differ materially from these statements, We see our findings with the SEC from time to time, including our Form 10-K for the year into December 2021, any subsequently filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and our earnings release issued earlier today. We expressly disclaim any responsibility to update forward-looking statements. In addition, certain non-GAAP financial measures, as defined under SEC rules, may be discussed on this call. As required by applicable SEC rules, we provide reconciliations of any such non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures on our website. We have also posted an updated investor presentation on our website, investors.asburyauto.com, highlighting our third quarter results. It is now my pleasure to hand the call over to our CEO, David Hulse. David?

Thank you, Karen. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our third quarter earnings call. Before we get started today, I would like to take the opportunity to say that our thoughts are with all those affected by Hurricane Ian. Thankfully, our team members living in the path of the storm are safe. Also, thanks to the preparedness of our teams, we are fortunate in avoiding any notable damage to our stores and inventories. I will note that although we did not make adjustments to net income to reflect the effect of Hurricane Ian, we estimate that the store closures had a negative earnings impact of 14 cents per diluted share on our third quarter results. For the third quarter, we grew adjusted EBITDA by 115 million to 329 million, an increase of 54%. grew adjusted EPS from $7.36 to $9.23, an increase of 25%. We delivered an 8.1% adjusted operating margin, increased revenue by $1.5 billion to $3.9 billion, and grew gross profit by $288 million to $768 million and drove F&I gross profit per vehicle to $2,480, up $569 from prior year. During the quarter, we continued to integrate our acquisitions, build a strong balance sheet, and reduce our net leverage. Our day supply increased to 19 days, partially due to deliveries delayed by Hurricane Ian, yet still low day supply in inventory affecting overall unit sales. Year to date, we have generated $782 million of adjusted operating cash flow. Net leverage has decreased from 2.7 times at year end to 1.9 times at the end of the third quarter. Our strong cash flow and reduced leverage enables our focused capital allocation strategy. Currently, the car park average age is over 12 years. We have pent up demand from supply constraints over the past two years, and our parts and service revenue continues to strengthen. We look forward to continuing to deliver strong results for our shareholders, being outstanding partners with our OEMs to steward their great brands now and in the future, and offering an environment where our team members can thrive while providing the most guest-centric experience in automotive retail. Once again, I would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of all my fellow Asbury team members. It is through your passion and persistence that we continue to deliver these strong results for our shareholders and to be the most guest-centric automotive retailer. Thank you. I will now hand the call over to Dan to discuss our operating performance. Dan?