Shares of Lithia Motors Inc. LAD slid 3.5% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the auto retailer reported first-quarter results that missed expectations as profit per vehicle sold fell, while boosting its quarterly dividend by 19%. Net income fell to $228.7 million, or $8.30 a share, from $342.2 million, or $11.55 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $8.44 missed the FactSet consensus of $8.68. Revenue rose 4.0% to $6.97 billion but was below the FactSet consensus of $7.27 billion. New vehicle retail revenue rose 7.1% while used vehicle retail revenue fell 0.3%, and gross profit per vehicle dropped 18.2% to $5.585. Separately, the company raised its quarterly dividend to 50 cents a share from 42 cents, with the new dividend payable May 26 to shareholders of record on May 12. The stock has rallied 10.6% year to date through Tuesday, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 8.2%.
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