(Bloomberg) -- AutoNation Inc., one of the largest US car dealer chains, blamed a crippling cyberattack for a drop in revenue and earnings in the second quarter.
The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $3.99, well below the $4.44 Wall Street analysts predicted. The dealer group said the June hack of CDK Global, its online management system, lowered earnings for the period by about $1.55 per share, roughly in-line with the warning the company issued this month. Revenue also fell due to the hack and lower average selling prices.
“An otherwise strong quarter for AutoNation was masked by the CDK outage,” Chief Executive Officer Mike Manley said in a statement Wednesday. “We are encouraged by the health of the markets and look forward to delivering a strong second half.”
Despite the hack, which AutoNation said is no longer affecting operations, after-sales gross profit margin improved, which helped offset a decline in new and used vehicle sales.
The Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based company’s shares were little changed in early New York trading on Wednesday. The stock was up 19% for the year as of Tuesday’s close and hit a record closing high on July 16.
The cyberattack on CDK knocked out dealership management systems for roughly two weeks, costing thousands of car retailers business around the Juneteenth and July 4 holidays, as well as the end-of-quarter sales push.
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