IRVINE, Calif. -

Autobytel is seeing its financial standing make a positive turn as the company posted a net income — not a net loss — during the second quarter.

Company officials highlighted their second-quarter net income came in at $199,000, a stark contrast from the year-ago reading, which was a net loss of $3.0 million. Even in the first quarter of this year, Autobytel sustained a net loss of $571,000

How did Autobytel achieve the income upswing? Total revenue grew 26 percent year-over- year to $15.2 million, up from $12.1 million.

Officials explained the jump principally reflected improved wholesale purchase request revenue, including purchase requests sold to manufacturers.

In the first quarter, Autobytel’s total revenue was $16.0 million with the sequential decrease primarily attributable to industry-wide disruption caused by the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Officials went on to mention purchase request revenue — the company’s core business — rose more than 26 percent year-over year. However, it slid 5 percent from the opening quarter of 2011.

Autobytel insisted the year-over-year improvement reflected higher sales of wholesale purchase requests as a result of the company’s acquisition of Cyber Ventures and Autotropolis in September of last year while the sequential decrease was caused primarily by events in Japan.

The company’s second-quarter advertising revenue totaled $988,000, up approximately 14 percent from $869,000 a year ago. The rise primarily stemmed from an increase in direct email marketing revenue, according to the company.

Officials also relayed that advertising revenue decreased approximately 1 percent from the first quarter as the result of a reduction in spending by Japanese OEMs due to the earthquake and tsunami in March.

After seeing the overall numbers, Autobytel president and chief executive officer Jeffrey Coats was elated.

“We are extremely gratified to have achieved profitability for the quarter, which demonstrates the tangible progress we have made since re-focusing the company’s efforts on providing high quality purchase requests to automobile manufacturers and dealers and streamlining our organization,” Coats stated.

“The recent re-launch of Autobytel.com underscores our strong commitment to the industry through a broad array of content that addresses consumers’ stated automotive needs over the entire lifecycle of car ownership and brings fun back to the online car buying experience,” he continued.

“As we continue into the second half of 2011, manufacturers appear to be recovering from the impact of the events in Japan more quickly than originally anticipated, making us cautiously optimistic about the remainder of the year,” Coats went on to say.

“With our re-launched flagship website driving enhanced consumer engagement, along with manufacturers seeking ways to re-ignite sales after several months of distraction, Autobytel is in an excellent position to participate in what we believe will be an improving environment for the auto industry,” Coats added.

In other elements of its financial report, Autobytel computed that its second-quarter gross profit increased 50 percent to $6.4 million compared with $4.2 million last year.

The company’s gross margin improved to 41.7 percent of total revenue versus 35.0 percent for last year’s second quarter and 38.4 percent for the first quarter of this year.

“The year-over-year and sequential improvement in gross margin is principally due to a higher level of internally generated purchase requests, as well as search engine optimization initiatives,” officials explained.

Autobytel determined total second-quarter operating expenses declined to $6.1 million from $7.5 million a year ago. In the first quarter of this year, operating expenses settled at $6.6 million.

The company noted its cash flow provided by operations was $1.4 million for the second quarter, compared with cash flow used in operations of $2.2 million for last year’s second quarter and $1.2 million during the first quarter.

Six-Month Results

After highlighting its second-quarter performance, Autobytel delved into how it fared during the first six months of 2011.

Year-over-year, revenue climbed to $31.3 million from $23.9 million. The company indicated purchase request revenue for the current year-to-date period increased nearly 33 percent from the same period last year.

The company added advertising revenue totaled $2.0 million for the first half of 2011, roughly the same as for the first six months of 2010.

Officials went on to mention total operating expenses for the first six months of 2011 amounted to $12.7 million, compared with $11.6 million, which included a $2.8 million credit to expense related to litigation settlements. That figure included $2.7 million that was the final payment under one of these settlements and $425,000 in severance and related expenses.

Helped by the second-quarter performance, Autobytel determined its net loss for the first half of 2011 was $371,000 or 1 cent per share versus a net loss of $2.2 million or 5 cents per share in the prior-year period.

The company also mentioned cash flow provided by operations was $213,000 for the six months of 2011, compared with cash flow used in operations of $833,000 for last year’s first half.

Finally, Autobytel’s cash and cash equivalents increased $1.1 million from $7.5 million at March 31 to $8.6 million at June 30. Its cash and cash equivalents totaled $8.8 million at Dec. 31.