Leah Stearns
Chief Financial Officer at Copart
Thanks, Jeff.
I'll begin with our second quarter sales trends. During the quarter, our global unit sales and inventory increased over 7% and 6%, respectively, from the year ago period. Given the relatively quiet 2023 hurricane season, this growth was a function of a partial recovery, total loss frequency and share gains.
Focusing on our U.S. business, unit growth was nearly 5%, which reflected fee unit growth over 4% and purchase unit growth of over 10%. Consignment or fee units continue to constitute the vast majority of our U.S. unit volumes. Our insurance unit volume was flat year-over-year and up 9% when excluding Hurricane Ian units from a year ago. And as Jeff mentioned, our non-insurance unit volume growth has continued to outpace that of our insurance business. This volume growth substantially came from dealer units, which increased over 21% and fleet rental and finance units, which increased 35%. Inventory levels in the U.S. increased over 4% and over 6% when excluding low value and cat units.
Turning to our international business, we saw unit growth of over 21% with fee units increasing 22% and purchased units increasing by over 19%. Our international business ended the quarter with inventory levels over 16% ahead of prior year.
For the quarter, global ASPs and U.S. insurance ASPs declined by nearly 5% from the year ago period, and U.S. insurance ASPs excluding Hurricane Ian units were flat. In addition, international ASPs were up about 1%. Overall, our ASPs continue to show resilience compared to the more than 7% year-over-year decrease in the Manheim Used Vehicle Price Index for the quarter.
Turning to our financial results for the second quarter. Global revenue increased to $1.02 billion, representing growth of over $63 million or about 7%, including a 0.7% tailwind due to currency. Global service revenue increased nearly $72 million or over 9% for the second quarter, primarily due to higher average revenue per unit and increased volumes. Our U.S. Service revenue grew by over 7% and international service revenue grew by nearly 26% for the quarter. Global purchased vehicle sales for the second quarter decreased to about $8 million or 5% and global purchased vehicle gross profit decreased by less than $1 million.
In the U.S., purchased vehicle revenue was down over $7 million or about 9%, which was primarily due to a mix shift towards lower ASP units, while gross profit increased over $1 million. Internationally, purchased vehicle revenue decreased by $1 million or about 1% and gross profit decreased by $2 million.
Global gross profit increased to more than $464 million, an increase of nearly $38 million or about 9%, and our gross profit margin percentage increased by approximately 100 basis points to 45.5%. In the U.S., our gross profit margin increased to 50.2% and our international gross profit margin increased to 24.9%. The year-over-year margin increase on a consolidated basis was driven primarily by a revenue mix shift resulting from strong growth in fee units, which generate higher margins, and a decline in direct cost per unit sold.
On the cost front, during the first and second quarter of last year, we incurred cat expenses, specifically related to Hurricane Ian, which did not recur.
Turning to general and administrative expenditures, excluding stock-based compensation and depreciation expenses, G&A spend in the quarter was over $72 million, reflecting an increase of over $24 million. The increase in G&A includes over $3 million in one-time costs associated with the conclusion of our CMA process in the U.K. The remainder reflects the financial consolidation of Purple Wave into our results, third-party project-related costs and the impact of investments in our technology and sales organizations to support Copart's business growth. We expect that the investments we are making in our people, processes and systems will provide us with greater operating leverage over the long run. As a result, GAAP operating income increased by nearly 4% to $380 million.
Finally, second quarter GAAP net income increased by nearly 11% to over $325 million or $0.33 per diluted common share. During the quarter, we benefited from nearly $20 million of incremental interest income as we have actively invested our cash into treasury securities as well as a lower tax rate of 20.7%.
Turning to our liquidity and financial position. Liquidity was $3.9 billion as of the end of January, which is comprised of nearly $2.7 billion in cash and investments in 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 nearly $162 million, which is a decrease of 14% from the prior year. In addition, we invested about $123 million in capital expenditures, with nearly all of this amount attributable to our real estate and physical infrastructure to support capacity expansion, which contributes to our ability to serve our customers while simultaneously reducing our transportation costs and corresponding fuel consumption.
Finally, for the quarter, if you take our operating cash flow, less CapEx, we've generated about $39 million of free cash flow. As I've highlighted in the past, our top priority is to invest to grow our core business. To achieve this, over the last 12 months, we have deployed over $540 million into our real estate portfolio, fleet and technology to provide best-in-class products and services to our customers.
And with that, Jeff and I will be happy to take some questions.
