Online used-car retailer Carvana Co. doubled its profits in the first quarter with record vehicle volume and a substantial gain in loan sales.
Carvana reported a 46% increase in vehicle sales as consumers went on a buying spree of new and used cars to avoid higher costs due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. That and the company’s continued push for retail growth led to doubling its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to $488 million, beating a consensus estimate of $437.4 million.
At the same time, the company’s $373 million net income came chiefly from loan sales, which accounted for $273 million of that figure. Another $158 million came from gains on warrants that the company holds in insurance company Root Inc.
Without those two sources of income, Carvana would have lost money on a net basis. Some investors have questions about how Carvana reports the gain on the sale of loans. The company reports the revenue upon sale, while other auto retailers report the income over the life of the loan.
Carvana shares fell as much as 8.1% in after hours trading before bouncing back and rising 2.5% at 7:09 p.m. New York time. Through the close on Wednesday, the shares are up 27% year to date.
On a call with analysts, Carvana Chief Executive Officer Ernie Garcia III said the uptick in vehicle shopping related to tariffs likely helped the company.
“We’ve heard reasonable arguments that it would be more likely they would drive up new car prices by more than used-car prices,” Garcia said. “And so it may be a directional benefit to used cars.”
Management said it expects to grow profits and sales in the second quarter and the entire year, the company said in a statement.
The company’s retail gross profit per unit, another carefully watched metric, rose almost $100 to $3,308, beating analyst estimates.
A jump in its used-car prices helped the company boost profits. Carvana has been building momentum with its turnaround efforts over the past year, and is capitalizing on aggressive shopping as buyers look to avoid price hikes driven both by tariffs and heavy vehicles sales.
Carvana’s online retail platform is growing with unit sales rising 46% to 134,00 used vehicles.
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