Joseph P. Boutross - LKQ Corp. Robert L. Wagman - LKQ Corp. Dominick P. Zarcone - LKQ Corp..

Benjamin Bienvenu - Stephens, Inc. Samik X. Chatterjee - JPMorgan Securities LLC Craig R. Kennison - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. Michael E. Hoffman - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc. James J. Albertine - Consumer Edge Research LLC Bret Jordan - Jefferies LLC Ryan J. Merkel - William Blair & Co. LLC Jason A. Rodgers - Great Lakes Review.

Good morning. My name is Julie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the LKQ Corp.'s First Quarter 2017 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks there will be a question-and-answer session. Thank you.

I would now like to turn the call over to Joe Boutross, LKQ's Director of Investor Relations. You may begin..

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to LKQ's first quarter 2017 earnings conference call. With us today are Rob Wagman and Nick Zarcone. Please refer to the LKQ website at lkqcorp.com for our earnings release issued this morning, as well as the accompanying slide presentation for this call. Now let me quickly cover the Safe Harbor.

Some of the statements that we make today may be considered forward-looking. These include statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, hopes, intentions or strategies. Actual events or results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors.

We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. For more information, please refer to the Risk Factors discussed in our Form 10-K and subsequent reports filed with the SEC. During this call, we will present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures.

A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in today's earnings press release and slide presentation. And with that I am happy to turn the call over to Rob Wagman..

Thank you, Joe. Good morning, and thank you for joining us on the call today. This morning, I will begin our review with a few high-level financial metrics followed by an update on our operating segments and some macro trends we witnessed in Q1. Nick will follow with a detailed overview of our financial performance and revised guidance.

Turning to slide 4, Q1 revenue reached $2.34 billion, an increase of 21.9% as compared to $1.92 billion in the first quarter of 2016. Revenue growth in parts and services was a strong 24.5% on a constant currency basis.

Income from continuing operations for the first quarter of 2017 was $140.8 million, an increase of 25.5% as compared to $112.2 million for the same period of 2016. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations for the first quarter of 2017 was $0.45, an increase of 25% as compared to $0.36 for the same period of 2016.

On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.49, an increase of 16.7% as compared to $0.42 for the same period of 2016. During the first quarter, global organic revenue growth for parts and services was 4.5%. Now, turning to operations.

Organic revenue for parts and services in North America was 1.8%, roughly in line with our expectations and guidance, and the performance we anticipated given the mild weather we were experiencing as we entered 2017 when we provided our initial guidance. According to NOAA, during March, the average contiguous U.S.

temperature was over 10% warmer than the 20th century average. Record and near-record warmth spanned the West and Great Plains. Behind Q1 2012, the first quarter of 2017 was the second warmest first quarter period on record. Comparatively, the first quarter of 2016 was the fourth warmest.

According to CCC, collision and liability related auto claims for the quarter were up only 1.1% nationally, 70 basis points lower than what we were able to achieve in North America parts and services growth.

Furthering that point, according to the industry and supplier research, many of our collision shop customers and the smaller distributors faced flat-to-down results during Q1.

Importantly, our core collision products such as Keystone Platinum Plus fenders, hoods, and lights and our key salvage collision and mechanical parts grew at a faster pace than the overall North America organic rate.

With that said, and despite the weather headwind, during the quarter North America witnessed tremendous margin improvement with segment EBITDA increasing 210 basis points sequentially and 110 basis points year-over-year. Nick will provide margin details shortly.

During Q1, we purchased 75,000 vehicles for dismantling by our North American wholesale operations, a 4.2% increase over Q1 2016. As for volume at the auctions, the outlook for supply remains strong and the pricing dynamics we are witnessing are attractive.

With inventory already on hand and the continuation of our current run rate for acquiring cars, we should have sufficient inventory for our recycled parts operations. We are confident our business will benefit from these trends.

For our North American aftermarket business, we continue to see the expansion of our total collision SKU offerings as well as the total number of certified parts available, each growing 9% and 17%, respectively, year-over-year in the quarter.

Also during the quarter, our aftermarket and PGW auto glass teams integrated three glass locations into our existing LKQ wholesale warehouses. The glass location integration is on schedule with six additional locations planned for the balance of the year.

In our self-service retail business, during Q1 we acquired 133,000 lower cost, self-service and crush-only cars, which is a 6.4% increase over Q1 2016. During Q1 we increased our self-service procurement to take advantage of the favorable pricing for higher quality vehicles and increasing scrap prices in this line of business.

Lastly, I am pleased with the ongoing benefits we are witnessing with our productivity initiatives. During the quarter North America realized 50 basis points of gross margin improvement from the aftermarket procurement savings alone.

Roadnet, our route optimization technology, has made tremendous progress in the past year, and today is active in 343 locations with minimal locations active this time last year. At quarter end nearly 52,000 daily deliveries were tracked on a Roadnet system across 78,000 dispatched routes.

In regards to macro trends, the North American market continues to grow its product offerings, the SAAR rate is robust and trends, such as miles driven and unemployment, continued to move in our favor. APU trends are favorable reaching 37% in 2016, a 100 basis point improvement over 2015.

The number of certified parts continues to grow and our productivity initiatives are yielding quantifiable results. Now, moving to our European operations.

In Q1, our Europe segment had strong organic revenue growth for parts and services of 8.5%, and acquisition growth of 51.5%, primarily related to Rhiag, which were offset by a decrease of 9.9% related to foreign exchange rates.

During Q1, ECP drove solid organic revenue growth for parts and services of 6.8%, and for branches open more than 12 months, ECP's organic revenue growth was 5.1%. During the quarter, ECP integrated six new UK paint locations into existing ECP branches. At the end of Q1, ECP was operating 212 branches.

During Q1, collision part sales of ECP had year-over-year revenue growth of 18.9%. With respect to the T2 project, I am pleased with our continued progress. During Q1, we started testing the T2 automation.

As indicated on our last call, once the automation process is solidified, we plan on starting deliveries in early Q3, and to be fully live in Q1 of 2018 with ECP's base business. This project continues to be both on budget and on schedule. Now turning to our Sator business.

During Q1, Sator had organic revenue growth for parts and services of 3.4% and achieved its highest first quarter margin since we acquired the business in 2013. Now, on to Rhiag. March 18 marked the one year anniversary of Rhiag acquisition and, going forward, Rhiag will no longer be considered acquired revenue.

Rhiag tracked in line with our expectations during the quarter and continues to execute on its growth initiative and expand its footprint. During the quarter, the Rhiag team opened 12 branches in Eastern Europe.

With respect to the broader integration of our European operations, work is progressing on a number of major initiatives including procurement, cataloging, garage management systems, garage concepts such as branding garages with an LKQ brand name, a private label sourcing, and pricing. Now on to Specialty segment.

Our Specialty segment posted year-over-year total revenue growth of 6.7% in the quarter largely due to impressive organic revenue growth of 6.3%. The sales of light trucks and RVs continued their upward trend at a solid pace.

And given the depth of our product offerings, we believe our Specialty segment is well positioned to participate in that future growth. Now, turning to corporate development.

In addition to finalizing the previously announced divestiture of PGW's automotive glass manufacturing business, during the first quarter of 2017, LKQ acquired parts recycling businesses in Michigan and in Sweden, and a specialty products business in Pennsylvania.

Also, I am pleased to announce today that we are entering the $2.4 billion transmission repair market with the greenfielding of a remanufacturing transmission operation in Oklahoma. This project and new product line fits well with our operating philosophy of putting one more part on the truck. We anticipate opening this operation in Q4 this year.

Our acquisition strategy has always been to acquire the best assets we can with high quality management teams and use those strengths to lever the growth of the businesses.

As we look across our key segments, the acquisition pipeline is healthy with tremendous opportunities to grow our existing market share in key markets, expand the depth of our product lines, and enter new geographic markets and, in particular, throughout Europe.

At this time, I'd like to ask Nick to provide more detail and perspective on our financial results and our updated 2017 guidance..

Thanks, Rob, and good morning to everybody on the call. I am delighted to run you through the financial summary for the quarter before touching on the balance sheet and then addressing our upward-revised guidance for 2017.

When taken as a whole, our financial performance in the first quarter of 2017 was excellent and slightly ahead of our expectations. We experienced solid revenue and earnings growth, headlined by the best margins our North American business has achieved in several years.

My comments this morning will focus on the results from continuing operations which exclude the two months of activity for the PGW automotive glass manufacturing business which was sold on March 1, 2017, for $310 million. Consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2017 was $2.3 billion representing a 21.9% increase over last year.

That reflects a 21.7% increase in revenue from parts and services, aided by 25.9% increase in other revenue. I will provide a bit more detail on the organic growth of each business as I walk through the segment results. As noted on slide 12 of the presentation, consolidated gross margins improved 10 basis points to 39.7%.

The uptick reflected significantly improved productivity in North America, offset by a decline in Europe, largely resulting from the inclusion of Rhiag which has lower gross margin structures and a decline due to our Specialty segment which has the lowest gross margin structure of all of our businesses.

We gained about 10 basis points of efficiencies in our operating expenses largely due to lower facility and warehousing expense as a percent of revenue, reflecting the inclusion of Rhiag in the 2017 results as it has lower facility and warehousing expenses than our other businesses.

Segment EBITDA totaled $290 million for the first quarter of 2017, reflecting the $54 million or 23% increase over the comparable quarter of 2016. As a percent of revenue, segment EBITDA was 12.4%, a 10 basis point increase over the 12.3% recorded last year.

During the first quarter of 2017, we experienced a $12 million decrease in restructuring cost compared to the prior year, but a $17 million increase in depreciation and amortization, the latter of which was due largely to the Rhiag and PGW acquisitions.

With that, operating income for the first quarter of 2017 was up about $50 million or almost 27% when compared to the same period last year. Interest expense increased $9.4 million due to the increased borrowings to fund the Rhiag and PGW acquisitions.

Non-operating expenses improved by about $7 million over last year as the Q1 2016 results included some one-time items related to the Rhiag and PGW acquisitions. With that, pre-tax income during the first quarter of 2017 was $213 million, up $47 million or 28% compared to the first quarter of last year.

Our net tax rate during the first quarter was 33.9%, up from 32.1% in 2016. The 2017 rate reflected an effective rate of 35.25% and some discrete items that reduced the reported rate, the most significant of which is the excess tax benefits associated with stock-based compensation.

The effective rate of 35.25% excluding discrete items is higher than last year due to a shift in the geographic mix of our earnings. Diluted earnings per share for the first quarter was $0.45, which was up 25% compared to the $0.36 reported last year.

Adjusted EPS which excludes restructuring charges, intangible asset amortization, the tax benefit associated with stock-based compensation, and other one-time unusual items, was $0.49 in the first quarter of 2017 versus $0.42 last year, reflecting a 17% improvement. Stronger scrap prices added slightly more than $0.01 to EPS in Q1 2017.

And as anticipated, the translation impact of currencies had a negative impact of $0.01 a share during the quarter. As highlighted on slide 13, the competition of our revenue continues to change due to the varying growth rates of our different businesses and the impact of acquisitions.

Since each of our segments has a different margin structure, this mix shift impacts the trend in consolidated margins. And with that, let's get into the details on the segments. Revenue in our North American segment during the first quarter of 2017 increased to $1.208 billion, up 11.8% over 2016.

The overall growth in revenue resulted from a combination of 10.4% growth from parts and services and a 25.5% increase in other revenue, the latter of which was due primarily to higher prices received for scrap steel and other metals.

The 10.4% growth in North American parts and services was the result of a combination of 1.8% organic growth plus 8.3% acquisition growth, and an additional 20 basis points of increase from the FX impact due to the strength of the Canadian dollar. There is no doubt that another very mild winter had an impact on our revenue.

Rob mentioned the CCC statistic that repairable claims were up on average of only 1.1% in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2017. Indeed, 23 of the 50 states reported declines in collision and liability repairable claim volume on a year-over-year basis.

Gross margins in North America during the first quarter were 44.4%, a recent high and up 180 basis points over the 42.6% reported last year.

The strong results reflected the benefits of procurement initiatives in both our salvage and aftermarket operations, offset in part by the inclusion of the PGW aftermarket glass operation which, structurally, has lower margins.

With respect to operating expenses in our North American segment, we lost about 50 basis points of margin compared to comparable quarter of last year.

Almost all of the increase in expense as a percent of revenue was due to the inclusion of the PGW aftermarket glass operation in the North American results in 2017 and with almost $6 million of shared PGW corporate expenses for the first two months were recorded as continuing operations even though these expenses went with the glass manufacturing sold on March 1.

These shared costs will no longer be incurred by the PGW aftermarket operation. In total, EBITDA for the North American segment during the first quarter was $176 million, a 20.9% increase over last year.

As a percent of revenue, EBITDA for the North American segment was 14.6% in Q1 of 2017, up 110 basis points from the 13.5% reported in the first quarter of last year. Again, these are the best margins the North American segment has reported in many years.

As noted, scrap prices were stronger than anticipated in the first quarter of 2017 compared to last year and added slightly more than $0.01 to Q1 EPS. Assuming prices stay at the current levels, we will not get the same level of positive impact during the rest of the year.

Moving on to our European segment, total revenue in the first quarter accelerated to $821 million, up from $547 million, a 50% increase. Organic growth for parts and services in Europe during the first quarter was 8.5%, reflecting the combination of 6.8% growth at ECP and 3.4% growth at Sator.

Note that the Easter holiday fell in Q1 of 2016, but Q2 of 2017. So some of the European countries picked up extra selling days in Q1 of 2017, which increased the reported organic rate. This will reverse in Q2 as there are less selling days in some of the countries in April of 2017 compared to last year.

On a per day basis organic growth in Europe was approximately 3.4% in the first quarter of 2017. New branch openings at Rhiag since the acquisition contributed to the overall European organic growth rate in the first quarter of 2017.

And all of Rhiag will be fully blended into the organic growth results next quarter, albeit with a few less selling days. Gross margins in Europe decreased to 37%, a 110-basis-point decline over the comparable period of 2016.

While both ECP and Sator reported the highest first quarter gross margins each has achieved in several years, the inclusion of Rhiag weighed down the consolidated European margins. As mentioned in prior calls, given the three-step distribution model in Italy and Switzerland, Rhiag has a lower gross margin structure than either ECP or Sator.

And the shift in the revenue mix negatively impacts the consolidated European margins. Now that we have reached the one year anniversary of the Rhiag acquisition, this mix impact will largely disappear going forward.

With respect to operating expenses as a percent of revenue, we experienced a 30-basis-point improvement on a consolidated European basis. On the positive, we benefited from the inclusion of Rhiag, which structurally has lower operating expenses than our other European business, and we also benefited from improved SG&A leverage in the UK.

Offsetting these items were increased facility cost related to additional branches, the new T2 national distribution center in the UK, and the inclusion of Andrew Page, which is still losing money while we need to operate under a hold separate order issued by the Competitive Markets Authority (sic) [Competition and Markets Authority] (22:47).

European segment EBITDA totaled $79 million, a 36.9% increase over last year. Relative to the first quarter of 2016, the pound declined 13% and the euro declined 3% against the dollar. So on a constant currency basis, EBITDA growth in Europe was 47.5%, which we believe is quite robust.

As a percent of revenue, European EBITDA on the first quarter was 9.6% versus 10.5% last year, a 90-basis-point decline. Approximately 70 basis points of the decline relates to the impact of Andrew Page and the incremental cost in 2017 related to the new T2 facility.

Note the CMA is still reviewing our Andrew Page acquisition under the UK competition law. And it appears it could be moving toward a Phase 2 review for some or all of the business. That will likely extend the review time line for any portions referred into Phase 2 by an additional six to nine months.

Turning to our Specialty segment, revenue in the first quarter totaled $315 million, a 6.7% increase over the comparable quarter of 2016. The organic growth rate of 6.3% reflected the continued strength of sales of truck, towing, and RV parts, offset a bit by lower levels related to performance part sales.

Gross margins in our Specialty segment for the first quarter decreased 240 basis points compared to last year, largely due to lower supplier discounts, unfavorable product mix, and higher warehouse cost capitalized into inventory due to the two new distribution centers added last year.

Operating expenses as a percent of revenue in Specialty were down about 230 basis points as we continue to see the leverage from integrating the acquisitions into our existing network. EBITDA for the Specialty segment was $35 million, up 6% from Q1 of 2016.

And as a percent of revenue, EBITDA for the Specialty segment was flat with the prior year at 11.3%. Remember this is a highly seasonal business and the first quarter is typically pretty strong, as demonstrated by the graph in the lower right-hand corner of slide 18.

Consistent with normal seasonal patterns, you should assume these margins will moderate as we move through the back half of the year. Let's move on to capital allocation.

As presented on slide 19, you will note that our after tax cash flow from continuing operations during the first quarter was approximately $176 million as we experienced strong earnings and only a moderate increase in working capital.

During Q1 we deployed $117 million of capital to support the continued growth of our businesses, including $41 million to fund capital expenditures and $76 million to fund acquisitions and other investments.

The largest capital changes reflect the paydown of $326 million of debt, largely funded by the net proceeds derived from the sale of the PGW glass manufacturing business.

At March 31, we had a little more than $3 billion of debt outstanding and approximately $265 million of cash, resulting in net debt of about $2.8 billion or approximately 2.6 times LTM EBITDA. We have more than $1.3 billion of availability on our line of credit, which together with our cash, yields total liquidity of over $1.6 billion.

Finally, as noted in our press release, we have provided updates to guidance on a couple of our key financial metrics for 2017. As it relates to the organic growth for parts and services, we continue to be comfortable with the range of 4.0% to 6.0% for 2017, essentially consistent with our recent experience.

Our range for adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations which excludes restructuring expenses, the after tax impact of intangible amortization, and the excess tax benefit related to stock-based compensation, was increased to a range of $1.82 to $1.92 a share, with a midpoint of $1.87, up $0.02 a share.

Based on our shares outstanding, that range implied an adjusted net income of approximately $565 million to $595 million with a midpoint of $580 million. Our assumed effective tax rate before discrete items for 2017 is 35.25%.

Our guidance for cash flow from operations is approximately $615 million to $645 million with a midpoint of $630 million, while the guidance for capital spending remains constant at $200 million to $225 million.

Finally, page 23 sets forth the updated chart included in the Q4 call materials, which bridges the actual 2016 earnings per share from continuing operations to the midpoint of our updated 2017 guidance.

You will note that with the exception of the growth in the base business, which increased by $0.02 to $0.19 a share, all the other items are on track with the levels anticipated at the time of our call back in February. And at this point, I'll turn the call back over to Rob to wrap up..

Thanks, Nick. As a company, we are always focused on financial performance, but we are equally focused on facing change head-on and rapidly adapting in order to continuously deliver positive results for our stockholders, employees and, most importantly, our customers.

It is clear, as headwinds present themselves, our team actively adjust to market conditions to effectively and profitability manage their businesses, not only for today, but to position us well for the future. This focus has allowed us again to deliver double-digit EPS growth.

And before we open the call to Q&A, I would like to thank all of our nearly 40,000 employees, our stockholders, our board, our external constituents, friends and, most importantly, my family, for your trust, loyalty, support and commitment over the last six years as LKQ CEO. There simply are not enough words to explain my gratitude.

As I step aside and enter a new chapter of my life, I can say with utter conviction and enthusiasm that I have never been more excited about the future of LKQ and delighted that the board have selected Nick to be my successor. The transition is on schedule and would expect to formally pass the baton to Nick over the next month or two.

With that, operator, we are now ready to open the call for questions..

And your first question comes from the line of Ben Bienvenu with Stephens. Your line is open..

Yeah. Thanks. Good morning..

Good morning, Ben..

Good morning..

Rob, best wishes. Thanks for everything over the years and hopefully we can stay in touch..

Thanks, Ben..

So, the remanufactured transmission greenfield late in the year, that's interesting. Could you frame up the size of that market? What the acquisition opportunities might look like over there as far as the pace or the cadence of the rollout of that program? And is that your reman engine business that's quite a large business today for you (30:52)..

Yeah. Research tells us, Ben, that it's about a $2.4 billion a year repair – just the automatic transmissions that we're going to focus on – which also Oklahoma City because it's near our core division in Texas. What's interesting about what we do obviously is we're selling roughly 300,000 used transmissions into the marketplace.

We pick up a core with everyone of those. So, we're going to be able to put them right back into reman and put them back on our shelves. What's also good about the data we have is that we know which transmissions are on high demand based on our activity for used transmissions. So, we're going to focus on those high, fast-moving units at first.

The management team is hired. As you mentioned, we have a very strong reman engine division. They're actually overseeing this. I have the utmost confidence in our team. And quite frankly, the reason why we're greenfielding is there really aren't a lot of good acquisition candidates out there.

There's a lot of what we call bench techs where – like in AAMCO Transmission where they pull your transmission repair and put it back. So, there aren't many doing this on this level. So, we're excited about the opportunity. We expect our first transmission to be sold in Q4 and we think it's going to be a sizeable opportunity for us..

Okay. Thanks.

And then the gross margin improvement in North America, can you talk about how the progress you've made there, the $9.4 million year-to-date, tracks relative to your expectations? What your expectation is for what's left there? And then sort of the cadence of that as we move through the year?.

Sure, Ben. This is Nick. Obviously, the improvement in the North American gross margins are coming from really all parts of the business, whether that's the full-service salvage, the aftermarket parts, as well as our self-service operations and the like. The key there is the procurement. It has less to do with selling prices.

It all has to do with improvements from a procurement perspective. The activity at the auctions continues to be very strong as far as product flow. We're buying good product at good prices.

We're focusing on getting a few more parts off of each of those cars because, ultimately, we earn more money when we sell a part than when we send it to the crusher, if you will. Clearly, the improvements and the focus on aftermarket procurement that we put into place about 18 months ago is really helping.

Again, the total productivity initiatives, which includes things beyond just cost of goods sold items was over $9 million in the quarter. We are about $9 million last year or last – in the fourth quarter of last year as well. So, we're annualizing now at about $35 million, $36 million. All of that helps.

All of that helps drive down the cost of goods sold and improving the margins..

Great. And then just one last one for me. On the Andrew Page expense impact, looks like it moderated from 4Q to 1Q. I'm curious that move from, I think 120-basis-point impact in 4Q to 80-basis-point impact.

Is that seasonality or is this moderation sort of a cadence that we should expect as we move through the balance of the year?.

Well, we are doing a little bit better than we were in the fourth quarter when we initially acquired the business. But we still have to operate under the hold separate order. And so, there's only so much, Ben, we can do as it relates to the day-to-day activities at Andrew Page.

Our goal is to keep the losses to a minimum until we can get full control of the business..

Okay. Fair enough. Best of luck. Thanks..

Thanks, Ben..

Your next question comes from the line of Samik Chatterjee with JPMorgan. Your line is open..

Hi. Good morning. Hi, Rob. Hi, Nick. Just wanted to get your – good morning. Just wanted to get your thoughts on the North America parts and service group. You mentioned that results there have been stronger in 1Q than you expected particularly on the margin front.

But related to the organic growth, how do you calculate it for your expectation and even putting the weather issues that you had mentioned previously aside, how you're feeling about the strength of the underlying market there?.

Yeah. So, the North American organic of 1.8% is consistent with what we signaled during our fourth quarter call. At that point in time, we said that for the year, we were looking at 2% to 4% in North America. We anticipated that the first quarter in particular was going to be at or below the low end of the range, at 1.8%.

That's exactly where we came up. The reality is January and February were tough, March was the best month of the quarter. From a growth perspective, March tends to be a stronger month, in general. So, we are cautiously optimistic with respect to what that could mean for the rest of the year. We're still comfortable with the 2% to 4% range.

Again, at the low end of the range, if we just do 2.1% for the back nine months, we'll hit 2%. To get to 4% we need to be at 4.7%, on average, for the back nine months. We probably need some help from the industry trends to get us to the upper end of the range. But again, it's still – in theory, it's still within reach.

At the midpoint of the range, if we do 3.4%, we'll annualize out at 3.0% for the year. So, at the end of the day, the trends – Rob talked about the 1.1% increase in repairable collision and liability claims, that's as low it has been for quite some time. The reality, I mentioned the 23 states were actually down.

The states that had the largest increase included locations like Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho. I mean, it's great that they're up significantly but there's no cars in those states. So, it didn't really help us very much.

So, again, we remain cautiously optimistic that the trends will improve through the year and coming off of a relatively slow start..

I'd actually like to add to that, obviously, we got to do some easier comps in the back half of the year. We are seeing more cars moving to that sweet spot as the sour rate from three years ago really starts to move in. As Nick mentioned there was macro trends.

It was nice to see that APU finally went up 100 bps to 37%, miles driven, unemployment, fuel is still relatively cheap. So, we feel good that those macro trends has turned into more claims. I think we're well positioned..

Good. And just quickly on the EPS guidance, you raised the guidance in simple terms.

Is it really driven by any of the revenue expectations like, for example, revenue expectations from Europe, anything improving on that side? Or is it more a reflection of the margins trend that you saw across your businesses?.

It's really – we anticipate that we're going to fall into our guidance from a growth perspective, that the margins will continue to be pretty strong. Again, we did a little bit better than we anticipated in Q1. Now, we also know that a penny of that was the higher scrap prices which we did not anticipate.

And we don't think we will get the same uptick on scrap in the balance of the year. Again, you got to remember scrap prices in Q1 of last year were in the $92 range or somewhere thereabouts. So, it was a pretty big lift on a year-over-year basis.

Again, we were anticipating scrap at $125 a ton or so coming into the year and it was a little bit better than that. So it's a combination of consistent growth, consistent with our guidance, and good margins..

Okay. Great. And one final question if I may. One common pushback, investor pushback that I get is really – and I know you've probably answered this before – is the increasing complexity of new vehicle parts or parts used by new vehicles trade (40:10).

And so when you look at the aftermarket suppliers that you work with, how are you – what are your thoughts on their preparedness to sort of supply these increasingly complex parts going forward?.

Yeah. Really no issues there at all. Aluminum, high-strength steel, all of our manufacturers have access to that. In fact, they're producers for the OEs. So they have an aftermarket division and an OE division. So that should not be an issue at all.

As far as some of the sensors that go into the components, insurance companies won't use aftermarket or recycled sensors. So those were parts we really couldn't sell before anyway. So it's really not an issue. The more expensive components though, should bode well for us, because we can replicate them and obviously, we have them in the used as well.

So we should receive a little bit of a tailwind there..

Got it. Got it. Great. Thanks for taking our questions..

Thanks, Samik..

Your next question comes from the line of Craig Kennison with R.W. Baird. Your line is open..

Yeah. Thank you. And, Rob, from employee number 55 to the CEO of this great company, congratulations on a great career..

Thanks, Craig, appreciate that..

So as the board pursues Nick's successor, could you give us any color on what type of attributes they're looking for?.

Sure, Craig. And I can assure everyone the search process has been launched. We've retained a firm. The initial feedback from prospective candidates has been incredibly positive. We've reviewed dozens of candidates on paper over the last couple weeks. We'll move into the next part of that process very shortly.

I'm highly confident that finding capable candidates is not going to be the issue. The key is going to be finding somebody who fits LKQ from a cultural perspective. When you think about the attributes, clearly somebody who has public company experience would be helpful, either as a sitting CFO or as a strong number two.

If we could find somebody with distribution and/or automotive experience, that would be a plus obviously. A big part of our business is overseas, so some international experience would be helpful. We do a lot of M&A work, and so somebody who has been part of that process again would be helpful. Capital markets expertise.

The fact that we are going to continue to grow business quite rapidly, and we're going to need to fund that growth. And ultimately, we're looking for the best candidate with the best fit. But if we can find a diverse candidate, that would be an added plus. So you put all that into the mix. We doubt that anybody is going to fit all that perfectly.

But that's kind of what's on the wish list, Craig..

That helps. And then I had a question about your Specialty business. Growth in that business was stronger than we had anticipated.

I'm wondering how much of that is market demand versus things you might be doing to improve SKU count or drive growth in other ways?.

Yeah. I think it's fair to say it's both, Craig. Obviously the SAAR rate, most people are projecting that's going to start to plateau. Truck sales and SUVs are very strong, which is the core bread and butter of that division. We constantly add new SKUs and grow the business through that side, through inventory.

But clearly the demand is very strong for these type of products. So we are cautiously optimistic that's going to continue, with the SAAR rate being strong in those type of vehicles. So we're expanding.

We look for new geographic – and of course geographic locations and of course, our announcement last quarter of our expansion of this product line into Europe and the UK. So we think there's opportunities in Europe as well. So that's going to be a good product line for us going forward..

Okay. Thanks and best wishes..

Thanks, Craig..

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Hoffman with Stifel. Your line is open..

Thank you, Rob, Nick, and Joe for taking my questions.

Can you help me with the extra day just to think about it in halves? If I look at first half of 2016 versus first half of 2017 and the day moving around, how do I think about the 3.4 (44:48) looks like what to 2Q on a like-for-like basis? What am I talking about? 40 basis points? 100 basis points moving around?.

Yeah. So, Michael, this is Nick. And good morning..

Hi, Nick..

The first half kind of balances it out. It really had to do with the Easter weekend in Europe, where you had the biggest impact. Easter was in I believe the last week of March or towards the last week of March in 2016. Obviously impacted Q1.

Some of the European countries, it's basically a day off, both on Good Friday and on Easter Monday, the Monday after Easter. That fell into April this year. So when you look at the first half, it should basically cancel each other out. So a little bit stronger growth in Q1.

It would be a little bit softer growth in Q2 on a reported basis, just because of the impact of the Easter holiday. But it should all wash out. We talked about in the Q4 call, last year was a leap year. And so there's one less day on the calendar. That really manifests itself in the U.S.

Actually the way the calendar falls from a working day perspective, it doesn't pop out till the third quarter, if you will, where we're down one day. So hopefully that helps..

Yeah. Well, I get all that. What I'm really trying to figure out, what's one day equal in volume? Is it....

Well, one day on a quarterly basis is about 1.5%, right? Because in the U.S. we tend to have about 63, 64 business days in a quarter. So if you take one day out, you're about 1.5%..

Okay.

And so – and that's the same math for Europe then?.

So yes..

Right. Okay. All right. That helps. And then if you net out the year-over-year difference in scrap in your North American margin, that delta is 30 basis points, 40 basis points, you still would have shown an improvement. I'm just trying to get to the (47:05)....

The scrap gave us a little bit more than $0.01. A $0.01 is about $5 million of pre-tax. So, that's probably the best way to think about it..

Okay. So, that's more like 20 basis points, 25 basis points, the difference.

So, 14.3 looks like 14.1 (47.26) without the benefit of the metal?.

Yeah..

Okay. And then in North America, we talked about the mix between collision repair versus mechanical trends.

If I balance out – so I'm thinking 65% of revenues are collision and 35% are mechanical, what were the trends inside that part of the book?.

Yeah. The trends were actually pretty similar, if you will. Again, the salvage side of business really serves both markets, right. Obviously, we sell sheet metal and the likes off of a recycled vehicle, but the most valued parts of the engine and the transmission which go into the mechanical side of the business.

And again, the growth of the aftermarket and what I'll call the core collision aftermarket product, the hoods, the fenders, the lights, the bumpers and the like, was pretty comparable actually to the growth of the salvage business..

I will add, Michael, that obviously, the aging car part bodes very well for our mechanical, used engines, used transmissions, and future reman transmissions as well. So, we think we're well positioned on the mechanical side..

Okay. All right. Rob, good luck..

Thanks, Michael..

And thank you for taking my questions..

You're welcome..

Your next question comes from the line of James Albertine with Consumer Edge. Your line is open..

Great. Thank you very much and let me just add my sentiment as well. Rob, wish you the best. You've been great to work with and, like I said, wishing you the best in your future endeavors. And, Nick, very excited that you're going to be taking on some responsibilities here in the interim and look forward to that as well..

Thanks, Jim..

Thanks. And Rob is not going far. He's going to stay as a consultant with us, and I've got all sorts of ideas as to how to keep him plenty busy..

Well, in that case then, glad to have you around..

(49:44).

Very good. At any rate, I wanted to maybe ask in a different way North America organic growth. We've talked about now in several quarters the fact that units in operation, there is this older-than-average car park, and as values come down for those vehicles, there's just different determinations as to what makes sense to repair versus total loss.

And it sounds like we're going to be in this air pocket for a while and I'm wondering if we're watching closely in terms of values of vehicles, and we've seen residual values decline more recently here, NADA data and so forth.

Is there a potential for a negative pivot even further if we see a further erosion of residual values? And how should we think about that perhaps impacting your organic growth rates next nine months?.

Clearly, total losses are tied to residual values or actual cash values, but the insurance industry uses the term. Obviously, we expect, and with the aging car part, to see total losses to continue. Now, we meet with CCC every quarter. There was a slight uptick in total losses in Q1, but it's hanging right around that high-18% range.

Their prediction is it starts to level off as these newer car part gets into the repair cycle here. But the older cars are certainly sticking around. As used car values drop, that will obviously increase the total losses, if that happens. Interesting, Manheim reported they were slightly up last month.

So, we haven't really seen that happen yet, that the residual value is coming down. Should that happen, though, I remind everybody that how we get our inventory for salvage. So, even if it takes up to 19%, 20%, that's still four or five cars are repairing.

And one of the things that I think holds us back in our organic growth is the availability of inventory. So, if there's an uptick in total losses, it's not necessarily a bad thing where there's so many cars still being repaired.

Now, if that was to go up dramatically, then I think I would change my tune on that, Jamie, but for now, I think there's a healthy balance between total losses and repairable..

Yeah. And the other thing CCC mentioned is they believe that the uptick in the total loss rates is directly tied to the age of the car part.

The reality is when we're buying a car that's 9, 10, 11 years old at auction, we're not buying it for the sheet metal, we're not buying it for the hoods and the fenders, and the doors, if you will, because most of those cars aren't getting repaired anyways.

We're buying it for the mechanical components, the engine and transmission, because the sweet spot there is really cars 7- to 14-years model years old. And so, the more of those cars we can buy, the better we will be to service our customers..

And that was my comment to Michael on the previous question, was that – it's the older cars – our mechanical businesses was well primed for that side of the business. So, the more total losses, older cars, more inventory we can get for those mechanical components..

Okay. And obviously, you've reiterated today your 2% to 4% outlook. And so, to the extent that you would have seen something incremental in this data, you would have, I guess, revisited that and you didn't, right? So, it seems like you, maybe at the lower end of that range, have baked in some of this already, if I'm interpreting that correctly..

Yeah. I think that's (53:11).

Okay. Very good. Well, thanks again. And like I said, Rob, best of luck with everything, and look forward to staying in touch..

Thanks, Jamie..

Your next question comes from the line of Bret Jordan with Jefferies. Your line is open..

Hey. Good morning, guys..

Good morning..

Good morning, Bret..

Hey. How should we think about the cadence of the CCC data in the sense that it was down – it's marginally up year-over-year, but the first quarter of last year, I think was probably better.

Does the comparison ease as you get into 2017?.

Yeah. Interestingly, we said that – Bret, that it was 1.1%. For Q1 of 2016, it was 1.4%. So, claims line actually came down this year versus last year. Where they go, claims line, in the future months, we're not sure obviously. But our comps do get easier so that's why we think we're going to be okay on the organic growth..

Okay.

And then, on the reman business, how do we think about the longer-term margin impact, assuming that's a successful business you've grown in that $2.4 billion category? How does that compare to the North American average?.

Yeah. So, the best gauge we can tell you is our experience on reman engines because we have a pretty active business there. And the margins there are very consistent and very strong of gross margins relative – north of 40% range, which is consistent with our North American business.

And we fully anticipate that our margins in the reman transmission business will be in that same zip code..

Okay. Great. And then last question, I guess on the Mekonomen Group. I think I saw that John Quinn had become Chairman of that operation.

Is that something that – what's your longer term plan there as you get more involved?.

Yeah. So, as we announced last quarter, we have the 26.5% ownership position in Mekonomen are publicly held entity over in Sweden. We actually have two board members, both John Quinn and Joe Holsten, our Chairman, serve on the board of Mekonomen. We're very happy with our current position there. We believe it's a terrific company.

They're working through some growth issues as well, but we're going to remain a very interested shareholder and, again, we're happy with our current position..

Okay. And if I can squeeze one last one in. On the APU, it's good to see that growing again. Is that industry-wide uptake on alternative parts or is that sort of being driven by this sort of the secular market share gains from the MSOs? I mean, obviously you've got a few big consolidators out there gaining a lot of share and they over-index to APU.

Is it across the board or is it being driven by some of the big guys taking market share?.

I think it's both, Bret. I think that MSOs are driving it as well as the insurance companies. About 50-somewhat-percent is going through a true DRP environment, the other 50% is being driven by the insurance industry. So, it's a combination of both..

Okay. Great. Thank you, guys..

Thanks, Bret..

Your next question comes from the line of Ryan Merkel with William Blair. Your line is open..

Thank you. Good morning, everyone..

Good morning, Ryan..

Good morning, Ryan..

So, first question for me is on your guidance as it relates to operating margins. It looks like you're expecting operating margins to rise in the second half of the year.

Is this mainly driven by North America or did the other segments started to help as well?.

Yeah. No. Nobody should anticipate a significant uptick in margins, if you will, in the back half of the year. The growth will help.

We have – our business is a little bit seasonal, part of the reason we put in the historical margins on a quarter-by-quarter basis for each of the businesses into our chart is so folks can take that into account, if you will. Clearly, if you just track historically, Q1 and Q2 tend to be good quarters.

The third quarter tends to be a little bit softer and then we pick up again – generally, pick up a bit in Q4..

Okay. Got it. And then, secondly, it looks like accident claims, the year-over-year growth in the first quarter was a little slower than the fourth quarter, yet you saw a little bit of a pickup in North American organic.

So, is this share gains and possibly the sales initiatives kicking in here?.

They're definitely taking market share, we believe that. Just as we are very inquisitive, we look at other people's – our competitor's financials as we buy companies. We are definitely taking up market share. No doubt about it..

And now the sales initiatives that you've instituted, are those kicking in or is that going to take a little while..

That's going to take a little while, Ryan, but we certainly – we're focusing on more market – more wallet share of our customers and we're slowly aligning our sales reps towards those goals. So, that's going to take a little bit more time..

Got it. Okay. Thank you..

Thank you..

Your next question comes from the line of Jason Rodgers with Great Lakes Review..

I just wanted to follow up with the last question on the sales force compensation changes. Just more detail on what you've done so far and if you've seen any turnover as a result of the changes. Thanks..

Yeah. It's not sales force compensation changes. We haven't changed the compensation of our reps. It's more just how they're being commissioned on the growth of those customers. So, we are not seeing a turnover of those reps at that level. It's just rewarding them more for growing a segment of our business..

Okay. Thanks..

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Rob for closing remarks..

Thank you, everybody, for joining the call. We look forward to updating you in July when we announce our Q2 results. Thanks, everybody. Have a good day..

Take care..

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect..