Asbury Automotive Group

Revenue comes from four streams: new vehicle sales, used vehicle sales, parts and service, and finance and insurance (F&I). New and used vehicle sales generate the bulk of top-line revenue but at thin margins. Parts, service, and F&I — including extended warranties and financing markups — produce significantly higher margins and account for the majority of gross profit. The firm publicly reports this mix each quarter in its earnings releases.

Clicklane is Asbury's proprietary online car-buying platform, launched in 2020. It allows customers to value their trade-in, select a vehicle, arrange financing, and sign documents entirely online. The platform is not a third-party integration — it was built in-house and is designed to feed transactions directly into Asbury's dealership network, keeping the entire transaction margin within the firm. As of 2024, Clicklane is deployed across the majority of Asbury's dealerships.

Asbury operates franchised dealerships for luxury, import, and domestic brands. The manufacturer mix includes Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Acura, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Stellantis brands, among others. The portfolio is deliberately diversified to reduce dependence on any single manufacturer. The firm discloses its brand mix — including revenue concentration by manufacturer — in its annual 10-K filing with the SEC.

The peer group consists of the other large, publicly traded dealership consolidators: AutoNation, Lithia Motors, Penske Automotive Group, Group 1 Automotive, and Sonic Automotive. All pursue variations of the same roll-up strategy — acquiring franchised dealerships, then improving operations and capturing higher-margin after-sale revenue. Asbury differentiates through Clicklane and its captive warranty subsidiary, Total Care Auto.

Asbury owns some dealership properties and leases others, a mix it actively manages. In recent years, the firm has increased its focus on property ownership as a capital allocation strategy, viewing owned real estate as a hedge against rising lease costs and a source of long-term asset value. The company occasionally executes sale-leasebacks on select properties but generally prefers to own where it can.

The $3.2 billion acquisition of the Larry H. Miller Dealerships in 2021 was Asbury's largest deal to date and a transformative event. It added 54 dealership locations, primarily in Utah and the Mountain West, and instantly doubled Asbury's geographic footprint in a fast-growing region. The deal also included Total Care Auto, Miller's captive warranty subsidiary, which Asbury has since expanded across its entire network. The transaction vaulted Asbury into the top tier of US dealership groups by revenue.

Asbury's capital allocation prioritizes acquisitions of franchised dealerships, internal investment in digital infrastructure like Clicklane, and share repurchases. The firm targets dealerships in high-growth suburban and exurban markets with strong manufacturer brands. It has historically carried moderate leverage for the sector, though acquisition-driven spikes occur around large deals. The board authorizes periodic buyback programs, and Asbury has opportunistically repurchased shares when it views the stock as undervalued relative to the intrinsic value of its dealership portfolio and real estate.