Lithia Motors Announces Two Million Share Repurchase Authorization

Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE: LAD) today announced that its board of directors authorized a program to repurchase up to 2.0 million shares of the company's common stock. Purchases may be made from time to time, based on market conditions, legal requirements and other corporate considerations, in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. Lithia has completed its previous 1.0 million share repurchase program that had 416,776 shares remaining at June 30.

As of June 30, the company had 26.9 million shares of common stock outstanding. Lithia expects that any repurchase of shares will be funded by cash from operations, and intends to continue to evaluate store acquisitions and internal investment as additional uses of cash.