AutoNation, Inc.

Good morning, my name is Katie and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the AutoNation third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by the number two. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to Rob Katara, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may now begin your conference.

2021 conference call and webcast. Please ensure that you're... Meeting our call today will be Mike Jackson, our Chief Executive Officer, and Joe Lauer, our Chief Financial Officer. Following their remarks, we will open up the call for questions. I will be available by phone following the call to address any additional questions that you may have. Before we begin, let me read our brief statement regarding forward-looking comments. Certain statements and information on this call, including any statements regarding our anticipated financial results and objectives, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks that may cause our actual results or performance to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Additional discussions of factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially are contained in our press release issued earlier today and in our FCC filings, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. And now I'll turn the call over to Alderman Nation's Chief Executive Officer, Mike Jackson.

Good morning and thank you for joining us. Today we reported all-time record quarterly results with earnings per share at $5.12, an increase of 115% compared to adjusted EPS at $2.38 last year. This marks AutoNation's sixth consecutive all-time record quarter, driven by strong performance across both variable and fixed operations. Our third quarter's same-store revenue of 6.4 billion was up 18% compared to the prior year, as well as the third quarter of 2019. Consumer demand continues to outpace supply, driven by consumer desire for personal transportation and ongoing manufacturer supply chain disruption. We expect this to continue well into 2022. New vehicle sales are currently constrained by reduced production volume, low inventory levels, leading to even more pent-up demand that should support sales for the foreseeable future. In our used vehicle business, our strong self-sourcing capabilities, digital tools, and customer-focused sales processes are a competitive advantage that have allowed us to outperform our peers and the broader used vehicle market. In the third quarter, we self-sourced 90% of our pre-owned vehicle retail sales And our same store used vehicle revenue increased 53% year over year. We see additional opportunity to capture used vehicle market share through our AutoNation USA expansion. This week, we opened our eighth AutoNation USA store and our second store in the Denver market. And we expect to open two additional stores in Phoenix and Charlotte before the year ends. Our rollout schedule remains on track. with 12 additional stores planned for 2022 and over 130 stores by the end of 2026. Today, we announced that we signed an agreement to acquire Priority One Automotive Group, adding $420 million in annual revenue, together with our previously announced acquisition from the Peacock Automotive Group. AutoNation has announced $800 million in annual revenue from acquisitions this year. We also continue to buy back our shares during the third quarter. Over the last 12 months, through the end of the third quarter, we repurchased 27% of our shares outstanding from September 30th last year. Our strong execution and cash flows have positioned us well to continue our disciplined, opportunistic capital allocation strategy. I now turn the call over to Joe Lauer, our Chief Financial Officer.