Austin Ligon Quotations
Austin Ligon Quotes about:
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Years Quotes
After careful consideration, we have decided that for our next fiscal year, we'll issue guidance on comparable store used unit sales and on earnings per share only for the full fiscal year. We will no longer issue quarterly guidance. This decision reflects our continuing focus on longer-term store, sales, and earnings growth and on return on invested capital, and our recognition that the performance in shorter-term periods can be more volatile than over the longer term. As we report our quarterly results, we plan to comment on how our performance is tracking against our annual guidance.
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Area Quotes
We have revolutionized the way consumers buy cars. This will be the first time northeastern area residents will have an opportunity to experience a no- hassle, no-haggle, fun and easy car shopping experience. As we continue to grow our store base by 15 to 20 percent each year, we are looking forward to introducing ourselves to more and more consumers in the Northeast.
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Base Quotes
Selling, general, and administrative expenses as a percent of net sales and operating revenues increased slightly to 11.4% in this year's third quarter from 11.3% in last year's quarter. As expected, the moderate rate of increase in unit comps was not sufficient to provide SG&A leverage. Having a larger percentage of our store base comprised of stores not yet at basic maturity and last year's lower-than-normal corporate bonuses were also contributing factors. At the end of this year's third quarter, 49% of our stores were less than four years old, compared with 40% at the end of last year's third quarter.
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Adjusting Quotes
With an estimated television viewing audience of approximately 185,000, Charlottesville, Va., represents our first entry into a small market. We will be adjusting our store footprint, inventory, and our staffing model in this store, as a result of the smaller overall sales opportunities provided by this market. This store's performance over the next few years will help us better understand our longer-term opportunities in small markets.
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Cents Quotes
We finished the quarter with earnings of 25 cents per share, at the top end of our guidance range. Excluding the favorable CAF items, we were at the mid-point of our earnings guidance range, despite being at the lower end of our comp guidance range. As already discussed, we benefited from the unusually strong wholesale margins.
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Achieved Quotes
We currently anticipate comparable store used unit growth for fiscal 2007 in the range of 2% to 8%. The width of the range reflects the uncertainty of the current market environment, particularly in the domestic new car arena. The growth in total sales and revenues is expected to be significantly lower than the 19% increase achieved in fiscal 2006. This decrease reflects the difference in store opening patterns. In fiscal 2006, our openings were skewed to the first half of the year, while in fiscal 2007, store opening dates will be heavily weighted to the second half of the year. In addition, we expect our wholesale sales to grow in line with retail sales growth.
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Benefit Quotes
Our third quarter used car sales growth reflected increased traffic compared with last year's third quarter, as well as continuing strong execution. We were able to sustain positive momentum even as the cross-shopping benefit from this summer's new car employee pricing programs waned. Subsequently, new car sales and traffic levels dropped significantly, reflecting the limited model year close-out vehicle availability that resulted from the success of the employee pricing programs.
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Anticipate Quotes
In fiscal 2007, we anticipate gross capital expenditures of approximately $300 million. Planned expenditures primarily relate to new store construction and land purchases associated with future year store openings. Compared with the roughly $200 million of spending in fiscal 2006, the fiscal 2007 capital spending estimate primarily reflects a higher level of real estate purchases for store development in future years, as well as the timing of construction activities.