Investing.com -- Shares in Avis Budget Group rose modestly in after-hours trading after the New Jersey-based rental car company posted mixed quarterly earnings on Monday.
Avis, the leading general-use vehicle rental company in North America, reported net income for the first quarter of $19 million or 17 cents per share, excluding certain items. While Avis' quarterly earnings were in line with analysts' forecasts, the company's revenues declined by 1% from the same quarter in 2014 to $1.9 billion. Avis blamed the quarterly declines on inflationary cost pressures, fluctuations in foreign exchange currencies and a loss of approximately $7 million in legal expenses, stemming from the settlement of two longstanding cases. The losses from foreign exchange movement, according to Avis, exceeded more than $80 million for the period.
"Our first quarter results were in line with our expectations, despite uneven economic conditions internationally as well as what we believe was industry-wide over-fleeting in North America," Avis Budget Group CEO Ronald Nelson said in a statement. "Used-vehicle prices have been constructive, and we have right-sized our fleet and taken steps to reduce costs. Looking forward, as we move into the peak travel months, we expect travel demand and pricing to firm, and our full-year earnings projections remain unchanged."
The company also revised its 2015 yearly outlook, estimating revenue of $8.8 billion for the year, a 4% increase from fiscal year 2014. Avis expects that a closely watched metric of available rental days in North America for the year will increase approximately 5%. In April, Avis announced its acquisition of the Maggiore Group, the largest independent vehicle rental operator in Italy.
Shares in Avis rose 0.42 or 0.77% to 55.76 in after-hours trading.