You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: Please ensure that your [Technical Issue] Leading our call today will be Mike Jackson, our Chief Executive Officer; and Joe Lower, our Chief Financial Officer.
I will be available by phone following the call to address any additional questions that you may have.
Today, we reported all-time record quarterly results with earnings per share of $5.12, an increase of 115% compared to adjusted earnings per share of $2.38 last year.
This marks AutoNation's sixth consecutive all-time record quarter, driven by strong performance across both variable and fixed operations.
Our third quarter same-store revenue of $6.4 billion was up 18% compared to the prior year as well as the third quarter of 2019.
Consumer demand continues to outpace supply, driven by consumer desire for personal transportation and ongoing manufacturer supply chain disruption.
We expect this to continue well into 2022.
New vehicle sales are currently constrained by reduced production volume, low inventory levels leading to even more pent-up demand and should support sales for the foreseeable future.
In our used vehicle business, our strong self-sourcing capability, digital tools and customer-focused sales processes are competitive advantage that has allowed us to outperform our peers and the broader used vehicle market.
In the third quarter, we self-sourced 90% of our pre-owned vehicle retail sales and our same-store used vehicle revenue increased 63% year-over-year.
We see additional opportunity to capture used vehicle market share to our AutoNation USA expansion.
This week, we opened our eighth AutoNation USA store and our second store in the Denver market and we expect to open two additional stores in Phoenix and Charlotte before year end.
Our rollout schedule remains on track with 12 additional stores planned for 2022 and over 130 stores by the end of 2026.
Today, we announced that we signed an agreement to acquire Priority 1 Automotive Group, adding $420 million in annual revenue.
Together with our previously announced acquisition from Peacock Automotive Group, AutoNation has announced $800 million in annual revenue from acquisitions this year.
We also continue to buy back our shares during the third quarter.
Over the last 12 months, through the end of the third quarter, we repurchased 27% of our shares outstanding from September 30 last year.
Our strong execution and cash flows have positioned us well to continue our disciplined, opportunistic capital allocation strategy.
I'm going to start the same place as Mike opened.
Today, we reported net income of $362 million or $5.12 per share versus adjusted net income of $212 million or $2.38 per share during the third quarter of 2020.
This represents our sixth consecutive all-time high quarterly earnings per share and 115% increase year-over-year.
As Mike mentioned, consumer demand for personal transportation remained strong, while new vehicle inventory is at historically low levels.
In this environment, we continue to focus on optimizing new vehicle margins and procuring used vehicle inventory to support sales.
We expect these trends with demand exceeding supply to continue well into 2022.
For the quarter, same-store variable gross profit increased 42% year-over-year, driven by an increase in total combined units of 4% and an increase in total variable PVR of $1,709 or 39%.
A decline in new units of 11% was more than offset by growth in used units of 20%.
Our customer care business has recovered with same-store customer care gross profit increasing 8% on a year-over-year basis and 6% compared to the third quarter of 2019.
Taken together, our same-store total gross profit increased 29% compared to the prior year and 45% compared to the third quarter of 2019.
We also continued to deliver significant SG&A leverage due to strong cost discipline and robust vehicle margins.
Third quarter SG&A as a percentage of gross profit was 56.9%, a 750 basis point improvement compared to the year ago period on an adjusted basis.
As measured against gross profit on an adjusted basis, our metrics improved across all key categories, with overhead decreasing 390 basis points, compensation decreasing 290 basis points and advertising decreasing 70 basis points.
We expect SG&A as a percentage of gross profit to remain below 60% for the fourth quarter and the full year 2021.
Floorplan interest expense decreased to $5 million in the third quarter of 2021, due primarily to lower average floorplan balances.
This, combined with a lower effective tax rate and fewer shares outstanding generated a record EPS.
Turning to the balance sheet and liquidity.
Our cash balance at quarter end was $72 million, which combined with our additional borrowing capacity resulted in total liquidity of approximately $1.8 billion.
We continue to leverage our strong balance sheet and robust cash flows to invest in our business.
As Mike mentioned, this week we opened our eighth AutoNation USA store in Denver, Colorado.
We remain on track to open two additional stores in the fourth quarter and 12 more in 2022.
Again, as Mike mentioned, longer term we continue to target over 130 stores by the end of 2026.
In addition to organic growth initiatives, today we announced the acquisition of Priority 1 Automotive Group.
We will continue to look for additional acquisitions that complement our portfolio and meet our return thresholds.
We have also continue to repurchase our own shares.
During the third quarter, we purchased 7.9 million shares for an aggregate purchase price of $879 million.
This represents an 11% reduction in shares outstanding for the fourth quarter alone.
Today, we announced that our board has authorized an additional $1 million for share repurchase.
With this increased authorization, the company has approximately $1.3 billion available for additional share repurchase.
As of October 19, there were approximately 66 million shares outstanding.
Despite our significant capital deployment, we maintained ample capacity on our balance sheet.
At the end of the third quarter, our covenant leverage ratio of debt to EBITDA was 1.4 times, up slightly from 1.2 at the end of the second quarter, but still well below our historical range of 2.0 to 3.0 debt to EBITDA.
We continue to demonstrate strong operational execution and disciplined capital allocation.
Going forward, we will remain focused on leveraging our balance sheet and strong cash flows to drive long-term shareholder value.
It's been my honor to serve in a leadership position of AutoNation for the past 22 years.
We've built an exceptional brand.
We are America's most admired and respected automotive retailer.
We provide a peerless customer experience from coast to coast.
And we have made a difference in people's lives with DRIVE PINK and our efforts to beat cancer.
He is one of the world's most respected, admired automotive executives, and we are thrilled to have him as our new CEO.
And AutoNation has an even brighter future.

user
compname reports qtrly gaap earnings per share from continuing operations of $5.12.
qtrly gaap earnings per share from continuing operations $5.12.
qtrly same store revenue $6.4 billion, up 18%.
compname announces agreement to buy priority 1 automotive group, representing about $420 million in annual revenue.
authorized repurchase of up to additional $1 billion of common stock.

assistant