Casey's Bucks The Gloom As Sales, Stores And Stock Fuel Growth

Forbes

a day ago

In sharp contrast with a lot of the gloom enveloping much of the retail sector, Iowa-based Casey's General Stores ended its fiscal year on a high, with fourth-quarter earnings that it would be fair to say took a hammer to analyst expectations.
The convenience store chain, which through new site development and acquisitions is rapidly approaching 3,000 stores across 19 states, also saw historic expansion during the year, opening or acquiring 270 stores.
That included last year's acquisition of Texas-headquarterd Fikes Wholesale and its portfolio of 198 CEFCO convenience stores.
Casey's has built its business on targeting small town America, which is where the bulk of its business remains, while making acquisitions to expand its national reach.
One of the biggest deals came in July last year, when the convenience store chain agreed to acquire Fikes Wholesale in a cash transaction for $1.145 billion. That purchase price included tax benefits valued at approximately $165 million representing a net purchase price after tax of $980 million.
Casey's acquisition of Fikes, which is based in Temple, Texas included 198 stores and a dealer network distributed as 148 stores in the lone star state as well as 50 stores in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. In addition to the stores and dealer locations, the purchase included a fuel terminal to support gas supply to the Texas stores.
In its full year posting, Casey's said that it expects to open at least 80 stores in fiscal 2026 through a mix of acquisitions and new store development, bringing its three-year target strategy for growth to approximately 500 stores. As of fiscal year-end April 30, the company operated a total of 2,904 stores.
Casey's posted net income of $98.3 million, equating to $2.63 a share, for the quarter ended April 30, up from $87 million, or $2.34 a share, in the year-prior quarter, and was way ahead of analyst expectations of $1.94 per share.
Revenue rose 11% to $3.99 billion, again ahead of estimates of circa $3.93 billion. Same-store sales excluding gas sales [Casey's dubs this inside sales] rose 1.7%, fuelled the company said by strong performance in bakery and hot and cold food in the prepared food and dispensed beverage category, plus non-alcoholic beverages in the grocery and general merchandise category.
Prepared foods helped Casey's General Store sales.
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Casey's offers self-service fuel, a wide selection of grocery items and an array of freshly prepared food items including made-from-scratch pizzas, donuts, and sandwiches.
It operates from three company distribution centers, enabling an approximate delivery of 70% of in-store products as well as 60% of fuel. The first store opened in 1968 in Boone, Iowa and in the years following the company expanded by opening stores in other small towns across Iowa. Approximately two-thirds of Casey's stores are still located in areas with populations of 20,000 or fewer.
Casey's has a strong balance sheet and owns nearly all of its assets and the latest positive results saw the retailer's stock value shoot up over 10% and in the year to date its share price is ahead nearly a quarter
'Casey's delivered another record fiscal year as our team continued to execute on our three-year strategic plan, reaching $546.5 million of net income and $1.2 billion in EBITDA," Casey's President and CEO Darren Rebele said.
'Inside same-store sales outperformed the industry, up 2.6%, or 7.1% on a two-year stack basis, led by strong performance in hot sandwiches and bakery as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The operations team performed exceptionally well during the year, driving strong performance, integrating the most new units in Casey's history, while reducing same-store labor hours for the 12th consecutive quarter,' he added.
For fiscal 2026, Casey's forecast that inside same-store sales would rise between 2% and 5% and it anticipated EBITDA will grow by between 10% and 12%.