BB&T downgraded Asbury Automotive to Hold to reflect pressure on new vehicle margin trends and lack of further clarity on its Q-auto initiative.

Reports Q1 revenue $4.2B, consensus $4.26B....Reports Q1 operating margin of 6.3%... "We delivered a strong first quarter, crossing over $4 billion in revenue for the first time in our company's history," said David Hult, Asbury's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our performance was driven by the hard work of our team members, our focus on the same store operations and the strength and strategic fit of our acquisitions - we are accelerating the results of our integration efforts. We delivered on our ongoing commitment to profitably grow same store preowned volume by retailing over 2,700 more units sequentially, even in a tight inventory market, and new vehicle profits performed well against brand mix driven volume challenges. As we anticipated, margins continue their return to a more normalized level. Our results demonstrate how our strategic investments have enabled us to deliver strong results despite challenging market conditions. The strong performance of our business enabled us to repurchase 240,000 shares in the quarter as part of our capital allocation approach within our multi-year growth strategy."