Sonic Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:SAH) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Dyke : Yes, thanks. It’s Jeff again. We’re exactly seeing that. Our average dollars or gross dollars are up 30% on electric vehicle than an ICE vehicle. That’s a nice surprise for us. Yes. We’re all smiling – and so I keep bringing that on. The fixed operations business for us across the country is just fantastic. We expect to see it continue to grow. You see that in our numbers. We’ve had an amazing year and that’s going to continue on into 2024 more cars on the road and more customers using our service shops. So it’s been a very nice surprise. More electric vehicles coming through with higher grosses in terms of our average or old channel.

Rajat Gupta : Got it. Got it. Great. Thanks for the color. I’ll jump back in the queue.

Jeff Dyke : You got it. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of John Murphy with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

John Murphy: Hi. Good morning guys. Just a first question on sort of time and capital. Now that you’re kind of investing maybe a little bit less in EchoPark on time and capital, do you see the opportunities for making dealership acquisitions on the new side as maybe a higher priority and something that might be more attractive now?

David Smith : Yes, John, this is David Smith. Thanks for the question. Yes, we’re — as we mentioned, we’re going to opportunistically look at what’s best for the overall business. That’s in for all of our shareholders. And so we’re going to be open-minded about that. But our — as I mentioned in our opening comments we certainly believe that our shares are a great value. I think the opportunities in the franchise business, the franchise stores of the market are still extremely valuable. And so we’ve seen some great opportunities in our powersports business to grow as we’ve talked about. So — we’re going to be open-minded on where we put our capital. But it’s with having in mind again that it’s got to be great for the overall business is the key. So we’re going to look at it from a total ROI perspective. Heath, did you have any?

Heath Byrd : As part of our capital allocation one of the big pieces right now is investing back into our business. We talked about EV a little bit before you’d be shocked if the requirements and the capital that we have to spend to prepare for EV and manufacture requirements. So that’s going to be a part of our capital allocation and technology. We’ve just started our path down AI and continuing our robotic process automation and there will be huge efficiency gains from those two investments. And as David said, returning capital to shareholders, we increased our dividend bought by 9% of the outstanding shares so far this year. So those are some of the main drivers but I agree with David. We’ll continue to look at the opportunities both in the franchise and in powersports for good acquisition makes sense.

John Murphy: Okay. Maybe just a second question maybe more for Jeff on EchoPark long term. The ebb and flow we’re seeing in new vehicles in the one to five-year-old category is something that is becoming more obviously a cyclical phenomenon right? I mean you sell less vehicles for the last five years as you hit a trough you have less vehicles to actually retail. So as you look at this that should improve in the next two years or so. So hitting the accelerator again on EchoPark at that point, it seems like it could make sense. But at some point and this is long-term stuff but five to 10 years in line you might be hitting another air pocket again in those vehicles. Could it make more sense to have this model much more flexible to operate more in the one and 10-year-old category and flex up and down because you’ve got a good operator like CarMax out there right now struggling with similar issues that you’re facing that’s much more established and they’re just facing the same issue with the air pocket in these one to five or one to six year-old vehicles that they focus on.