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Avis Budget Group Inc. late Tuesday said it had the best quarter in its history, blowing past Wall Street expectations, with sales tripling thanks to both higher demand for rental cars and higher rental prices as more U.S. residents traveled.
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said it earned $398 million, or $5.63 a share, in the second quarter, contrasting with a loss of $481 million, or $6.91 a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Adjusted for one-time items, Avis earned $5.90 a share.
Revenue rose to $2.37 billion, more than 200% higher than year-ago sales and 1% higher than 2019 sales, Avis said.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected adjusted earnings of $2.35 a share on sales of $1.98 billion for the rental-car company.
“This is the best quarter result in our company’s history and a validation of all the hard work our team has put in since the pandemic began,” Chief Executive Joe Ferraro said in a statement.
“The momentum we saw in the second quarter is expected to continue through the summer and our team will be ready to take advantage of increased demand while maintaining rigorous cost discipline,” he said.
Avis ended the quarter with about $1.8 billion in liquidity. It renewed its credit facility in July and has “no meaningful” debt maturities until 2024, it said.
Avis shares rose 0.6% in the extended session Tuesday after ending the regular trading day up 4.5%. For the year, the stock has rallied 141%, compared with gains of around 18% for the S&P 500 index
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