Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) shares are rallying in Thursday’s after-hours trade after the company came closer to profitability and raised its gross profit per unit sold over the same quarter last year. The company also issued an upbeat – albeit vague – outlook for 2024.
Shares were higher by 19%.
“2023 was an exceptional year for Carvana, where our deliberate focus on efficiency and profitability drove fundamental business improvements that not only led to our best-ever financial results but also increased customer NPS throughout the year,” CEO Ernie Garcia said.
For Q4, the company sold $76,090 units -- a decline of 13% year-over-year -- for a total revenue of $2.42B. This compares to the consensus estimate of $2.55B.
Total gross profit per unit sold was $5,283, up $3,064 from the same quarter last year, while retail GPU increased by $120 to $2,812, and wholesale GPU was down $92 to $526.
The car dealership lost $1.00 per share compared to a loss of $7.61 per share in the same quarter last year. This missed the consensus estimate by 4 cents.
On the company’s balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents increased to $530M from $434M and restricted cash fell to $64M from $194M in 2022. Vehicle inventory declined by 38% to $1.15B.
Based on early sales for Q1, Carvana (CVNA) expects adjusted EBITDA “significantly” above $100M and retail units slightly higher on a year-over-year basis.