Avis Budget Q4 Profit Surges; Stock Soars

(RTTNews) - Avis Budget Group, Inc. (CAR) reported that its net income for the fourth-quarter surged to $142 million or $1.90 per share from last year's $13 million or $0.16 per share, driven by the strong performance in the Americas.

CAR closed Wednesday regular trading at $43.18, up $1.87 or 4.51 percent. In the after-hours, the stock further gained $5.75 or 13.32 percent.

Adjusted net income for the latest-quarter was $54 million or $0.73 per share.

The company said that the Americas delivered outstanding results in the fourth quarter, with a record Adjusted EBITDA of $144 million, which was 17% higher than prior year, driven by 8% rental day growth and improved vehicle costs.

Revenues were $2.2 billion, up 6% excluding currency exchange rate movements.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.50 per share and revenues of $2.08 billion for the fourth-quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

For 2020, the company expects adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $3.75 - $4.75, and revenues of $9.40 billion - $9.60 billion. Wall Street currently is looking for fiscal year 2020 earnings of $3.99 per share on annual revenues of $9.32 billion.