Asbury Automotive Group, Inc., one of the largest automotive retail and service companies in the U.S., reported net income for the third quarter 2017 of $30.7 million, or $1.48 per diluted share.

During the quarter, we had two non-recurring events that negatively impacted our results.  First, our dealerships in Florida, Georgia, and Houston, Texas had various levels of business interruption due to Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. We believe the net impact of the hurricanes was a reduction in earnings of at least $0.10 per diluted share.  Second, the CEO transition announced in August resulted in an accounting charge of $0.05 per diluted share. We did not adjust our earnings for the above events.

"Our team did an outstanding job managing through the tragic storms that we experienced this quarter.  Due to their efforts we were able to limit the storms' impact on our business," said Craig Monaghan, Asbury's President and Chief Executive Officer.

"Despite the hurricanes, we were able to grow our F&I and parts and service business," said Asbury's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, David Hult. "This together with strong expense control helped us improve our industry-leading operating margin to 4.4% for the quarter."

For the nine-month period ended September 30, 2017, the Company reported net income of $96.6 million, or $4.60 per diluted share.