Rush’s 1Q Class 8 Sales Jump 30%
Truck dealership Rush Enterprises’ first-quarter net income slipped slightly from a year ago as its heavy-duty truck sales jumped 30%.
Net income fell to $12 million, or 30 cents per share, from $13.5 million, or 34 cents, in last year’s first quarter, due in part to higher expenses.
Sales jumped 27% to $958.7 million, Rush said in an April 21 statement.
Its new Class 8 truck sales rose 30% in the quarter, to 2,688 units, accounting for 5.9% of the U.S. heavy-duty truck market, the company said.
“Consistent with industry forecasts, our Class 8 order intake has improved,” CEO W.M. “Rusty” Rush said in a statement.
“We began to see our backlog increase at the end of last year, and the increase continued in the first quarter [and] expect our higher rate of order intake to continue throughout 2014 as on-highway and vocational fleets replace aged vehicles and add some capacity,” he said.
New medium-duty Classes 4-7 truck sales rose 1% to 1,966, and its light-duty truck sales rose 23% to 486.
Used-truck sales rose 20% to 1,703 trucks, and parts, service and body shop sales revenue jumped 33% to $309 million.
Rush Enterprises is the only major publicly traded U.S. truck dealership and specializes in Peterbilt and Navistar Class 8 tractors.
“We continue to invest significantly in our Peterbilt Division, with new construction and remodel projects . . . that will enhance capabilities and increase capacity at locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida and Texas,” Rush said. “We have also begun facility improvements to existing Navistar dealerships in Ohio, Idaho and Missouri.”
