Leah Stearns
Chief Financial Officer at Copart
Thanks, Jeff. I'll begin with our sales trends for the first quarter. During the quarter, our global unit sales and inventory increased nearly 13% and 3%, respectively. Given the relatively quiet hurricane season in '23, our inventory growth was a function of a partial recovery in total loss frequency and share gains. During the quarter, we saw global ASPs decline by approximately 1% versus the prior year. Focusing on our US business, we experienced strong unit growth of over 10%, which reflected fee unit growth over 10% and purchase unit growth of 14%.
Consignment of fee units continue to generate the vast majority of Copart's volume growth with our insurance units posting nearly 10%, our dealer units posting 13% growth and Blue Car units, which include units from fleet, rental and finance companies posting over 35% growth. This unit growth was modestly offset by a decline in low value units from wholesalers and charities. Inventory levels in the US increased 1% or nearly 12% when excluding low value units and cab [Phonetic] units. In the US, ASPs were down 2% and more specifically, insurance ASPs were down 1.7% compared to the 4% decrease in the Manheim Used Vehicle Price Index.
Turning to our international business, we saw unit growth of over 24% with fee units increasing over 28% and purchase units increasing by over 4%. Our international business ended the quarter with inventory levels nearly 14% ahead of the prior year. International ASPs were up 7% compared to the prior year period. Our auction returns remained strong as we continue to invest in growing our global buyer base by driving member acquisition, activation and retention. Copart auctions provide our insurance customers with best-in-class liquidity and returns. Ultimately, providing a more cost-effective way to manage growing claims costs by making it more cost-effective to deem damaged vehicles to total loss.
In addition, we continue to invest in expanding our products and services to serve a more diverse mix of sellers and unit types. Examples of this include our national sales such as our specialty equipment auctions, which primarily sell heavy and medium-duty trucks and agricultural equipment and our select auction which sells clean title vehicles and now provides buyers with greater transparency and vehicle quality through satellites and an arbitration policy.
Turning to our financial results for the first quarter. Global revenue increased $127 million or about 14%, including a 1% tailwind due to currency. Global service revenue increased nearly $133 million or over 18% for the first quarter, primarily due to higher average revenue per unit and increased volume. US service revenue grew by 17% and international service revenue grew by 29%. Global purchase vehicle sales for the first quarter decreased about $6 million or 3% with US purchase vehicle revenue for the quarter down 19%, which was primarily due to a mix shift with the decline in our powersports business, NPA being offset by an increase in our Copart direct cash for cars purchase vehicle revenue.
The US decline was offset by international growth of 19%. Global purchase vehicle gross profit decreased about $2 million for the quarter with US purchase vehicle gross profit increasing about $2 million and international purchase vehicle gross profit decreasing $4 million, reflecting a 29% increase in cost of vehicle sales. Global gross profit in the first quarter increased over $94 million or about 26% and our gross margin percentage increased by approximately 400 basis points to 45.5%. This reflects US margins, which increased to 49.9% and international margins decreasing to 24.9%. The year-over-year margin increase on a consolidated basis was driven primarily by a mix shift due to the strong growth in fee units in the US, which was partially offset by the impact of inflation and a slight decline in purchase unit margins internationally.
On the cost front, during the first quarter of last year, we incurred cat cost, cat expenses, specifically related to Hurricane Ian, which did not recur. Operationally, we are focusing on increasingly standardizing processes and leveraging technology and automation to mitigate the inflationary impacts we've experienced across our business. We expect these efforts will drive greater scalability and efficiency across the organization and help mitigate longer-term cost pressures.
Turning to general and administrative expenditures, excluding stock-based compensation and depreciation expenses. G&A spend in the quarter was $58 million, reflecting an increase in $13 million and includes $3 million due to a one-time maintenance project, the financial consolidation of Purple Wave into our results and the impact of our overall growth in business. Over the long-run we continue to expect operating leverage as we grow. Because of our strong revenue growth and moderate cost increases, GAAP operating income increased by nearly 27% to over $395 million for the quarter. First quarter income tax expense was nearly $91 million, which reflects a 21.4% effective tax-rate. And finally, first quarter GAAP net income increased by over 35% to over $332 million or $0.34 per diluted common share.
Turning to our liquidity and financial position. Liquidity was $3.9 billion as of Q1, which is comprised of $2.6 billion in cash and investments and held-to-maturity securities and our capacity under our revolving credit facility of over $1.2 billion. For the quarter, we generated operating cash flow of over $375 million, which is an increase of 20% from the prior year period. In addition, during the first quarter, we invested about $162 million in capital expenditures with nearly 80% of this amount attributable to our physical infrastructure. And more specifically, capacity expansion, which contributes to our ability to serve our customers, while simultaneously reducing our transportation cost and corresponding fuel consumption. Finally, for the quarter, if you take operating cash less capex, we generated $213 million of free cash flow.
I'll conclude with a few remarks about our capital allocation strategy, focusing on investing in our core business and corporate development. We remain focused on building long-term value for our shareholders and endeavor to continue our strong track record for years to come. To achieve this, we will continue to use our disciplined approach to capital allocation and remain patient, flexible and opportunistic. Our first priority is to deploy capital to grow our core business where we will continue to invest in our people, operational capabilities, including logistics, technology and real estate, as well as our customer experience.
We also focus on opportunities to diversify our business, including expanding our marketplace capabilities into new geographies or to service new asset type. A prime example of this was our investment into Purple Wave, which like NPA brings a leading marketplace for specialized unit -- used unit type, which in Purple Wave's case spans construction added fleet. And further, we seek to partner with leaders in areas of technology and innovation which expand beyond Copart's core business but directly support our customers' needs. This includes in insurtech where we recently announced a strategic partnership with Hi Marley to accelerate the total loss process for our customers and their policy holders. This approach provides us ample opportunities to grow our core and drive diversification across our business.
And with that, Jeff and I would be happy to take some questions.
