FORT LAUDERDALE – AutoNation Inc. reported increased profitability in each of its business sectors for the first quarter, with revenue up 10 percent and gross profit up 6 percent. Officials attributed the healthy profit gains to F&I performance and new-vehicle sales.

Net income from continuing operations rose almost 6 percent to $74 million for the quarter compared to the year-ago period. Revenue rose from $3.3 billion last year to 3.7 billion, with new-vehicle unit sales increasing 8 percent on a same-store basis and 10 percent overall, according to F&I and Showroom magazine.

Driven by increases in F&I and new-vehicle gross profits, overall gross profit for the dealer group increased 6 percent from the year-ago period to $603 million in the first quarter. F&I gross profit increased 7.2 percent per vehicle retailed to $1,213.

Officials also attributed the company’s gross profit gains to the $4.6 million, or $82 on a per new-vehicle retailed basis, related to additional incentives on premium luxury vehicles previously sold.

“The renaissance in auto retail is well underway, reflected in a seasonally adjusted U.S. industry annual selling rate of 14.5 million units for the first quarter of 2012,” said Mike Jackson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We have increased our 2012 U.S. industry new-vehicle sales forecast to mid-14 million units, as we see continued momentum in U.S. auto sales.”

During the first quarter of 2012, AutoNation repurchased 11.7 million shares of common stock, or 9 percent of the shares outstanding as of Dec. 31, 2011, for an aggregate purchase price of $405.4 million. From April 1 through April 24, 2012, the company also repurchased 2.1 million shares for an aggregate purchase price of $70.8 million. As of April 24, 2012, there were approximately 122 million shares outstanding.

By segment, AutoNation’s domestic-brand stores experienced a 16 percent increase in new-vehicle unit sales, with income ($50 million) up $7 million from the year-ago period. The group’s import stores, which income of $62 million, also increased new-vehicle unit sales by 6 percent. New-vehicle unit sales for the group’s premium luxury stores were up 14 percent. Net income for those stores increase by $1 million to $59 million.

FORT LAUDERDALE — AutoNation Inc. reported that new-vehicle unit sales in December 2011 totaled 24,342 units, an increase of 11 percent year over year.

Retail new-vehicle unit sales for AutoNation’s domestic segment were up 17 percent (7,609 units), while import sales were flat (11,621 units). Additionally, premium luxury sales were up 32 percent (5,112 units) vs. December 2010.

For the fourth quarter, new-vehicle unit sales increased 12 percent, with domestic up 19 percent, import up 1 percent, and premium luxury up 31 percent year over year. For full year 2011, AutoNation retail new-vehicle unit sales increased 7 percent, with domestic up 17 percent, import flat and premium luxury up 15 percent vs 2010.

WASHINGTON — AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson will deliver the keynote address at the Washington Area New Automobile Dealers Association (WANADA)’s annual luncheon, scheduled for Dec. 7 at The Renaissance Mayflower hotel.

Jackson’s speech, titled “The Auto Recovery has Begun,” will detail the reasons for a projected upswing in one of America’s most critical industries. The announcement precedes news from the company that it’s new vehicle retail sales increased 21 percent year over year, with double-digit increases in all three of the company’s operating segments: domestic (29 percent), import (10 percent) and premium luxury (up 35 percent).

Jackson has led AutoNation since September 1999 and has served in key leadership roles at Mercedes-Benz USA, from executive vice president to president and, ultimately, CEO. He also served as managing partner of Bethesda’s Euro Motorcars from 1979 to 1990.

WANADA’s annual luncheon draws hundreds of auto dealers from across the metro region as well as keynotes from James Carville,Mary Matalin, George Will and Knight Kiplinger, according to AutoNation.

Headquartered in the District of Columbia, WANADA is the new car dealer group in the metropolitan Washington area. WANADA also trains and develops dealership personnel under its educational foundation, Automobile Dealer Education Institute.

FORT LAUDERDALE — Kevin Westfall resigned from his post at AutoNation Inc. on Nov. 9 to pursue other opportunities, according to the company’s Nov. 14 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Westfall, who served as senior vice president of sales, officially left the company on Nov. 11. The company could not be reached for comment, but it did report in its SEC filing that David Koehler, a market president in the company’s Florida region, was promoted to the position of senior vice president of variable operation, according to F&I and Showroom magazine.

In connection with Westfall’s departure, the company entered into a separation agreement with its former executive that will pay him his current salary of $482,040 until May 2012. In addition, he’ll receive a prorated performance bonus for 11 months of 2011. The agreement also contains a non-compete clause.

While at AutoNation, the country’s largest dealer group, Westfall was known as the company’s F&I chief, monitoring F&I performance levels at individual stores. He also served as the president of AutoNation Financial Services, the dealer group’s former captive finance company, from 1997 to 2001. He also served as the president of BMW Financial Services, where he helped launch the company’s captive finance arm.

Westfall was a staunch defender of dealer-arranged financing, warning finance sources at the 2010 Vehicle Finance Conference not to eliminate dealer participation. Westfall also was a key supporter of technology at AutoNation, and played a key role in the implementation of CoinData’s docuPAD, an interactive F&I selling system that places a touchscreen display into an F&I manager’s desk.

“Our goal wasn’t just to be an average or good dealer, we want to lead the industry, and we spend million and millions of dollars trying to improve our process,” he said during his keynote address at the magazine’s 2010 F&I Conference and Expo. Westfall also served as a keynote speaker at the 2007 event.

DENVER – The leader of the largest U.S. auto dealership group, AutoNation Inc, predicts U.S. automobile sales will accelerate the last three months of 2011 and to rise in each of the next two years.

AutoNation’s Chief Executive Mike Jackson said on Thursday he expects U.S. sales of cars and light trucks to reach a 13 million vehicle annual rate by the end of the year.

“The auto recovery is going to resume probably in October,” Jackson said in an interview with Reuters. “We’re on a journey back to 16 million, 17 million. I can’t tell you exactly when we’re gong to get there, but we are going to get there.”

Jackson spoke on the sidelines of a meeting of AutoNation dealers and employees from Colorado in downtown Denver led by the CEO as well as AutoNation President Mike Maroone that was part business and part rally.

Jackson said it was too early to project U.S. auto sales for 2012. He said he wants to wait to see the trajectory of the recovery near the end of the year.

However, a slide Jackson showed in a presentation to the roughly 200 employees on Thursday projected U.S. auto sales at about 14.2 million vehicles in 2012 and 15.9 million in 2013.

Research firm J.D. Power and Associates expects U.S. auto sales of about 12.6 million vehicles in 2011, about a 9 percent increase over 2010. J.D. Power expects U.S. auto sales to reach 14.1 million in 2012.

Jackson said much of the U.S. auto industry will have recovered by October from the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan that limited inventory for Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co, and, to a lesser degree, Nissan Motor Co Ltd.

The 62-year-old Jackson said he is “convinced” U.S. new auto sales will return to more than 16 million per year in part because consumer auto loans have become available after the 2008-2009 recession quicker than home loans.

“We have reasonably good financing available for our customers, not what we had in 2005, 2006, 2007, but we may never have that again,” Jackson said, adding that there is pent-up demand to drive sales.

Maroone and Jackson said they do not expect a “price war” among automakers and dealers as they try to appeal to consumers in the fourth quarter.

“The whole business is much more disciplined, rational, much more focused on the long-term,” Jackson said.

He pointed to the discipline on incentives by the Detroit automakers during the inventory woes of Toyota and Honda.

“Incentives are going to be better than they have been for the last six months,” Jackson said, adding that they would not approach a level that would trigger a price war.

DETROIT – AutoNation, moving to advance its marketing efforts to include enhanced mobile applications and social media, named former Facebook executive Alison H. Rosenthal to its board of directors Monday.

Her appointment will expand the AutoNation board to ten members, the nation’s largest dealership group said.

“Alison’s technology experience, especially in the areas of mobile applications and social media, will be a valuable resource for the board,” AutoNation Chairman and CEO Mike Jackson said in a statement.

Rosenthal, 34, held key business development posts from February 2006 through January 2011 at Facebook, including oversight of the social media site’s ties with over 300 mobile operators around the world, reported Automotive News.

When she left Facebook in January, Rosenthal told allthingsd.com that she wanted “to explore other start-ups and extend the social Web in new directions outside of Facebook’s core mission.”

She is also a former associate at General Atlantic Partners, a private equity fund focused on information technology, and served as an analyst at investment banking firm Goldman, Sachs & Co. from July 1998 until July 2000.