Latest news with #retailGrowth
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Casey's Bucks The Gloom As Sales, Stores And Stock Fuel Growth
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. getty 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%.
Bloomberg
23-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Canada Retail Sales Rose Again in April Despite Tariff War
Canadian consumers kept on spending last month, defying a tariff war that threatens their employment and wealth. An advance estimate suggests receipts for retailers rose 0.5% in April, Statistics Canada said Friday. That extended a 0.8% gain in March, which beat the median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Is O'Reilly Automotive Worth Buying? This Surprising Q1 Revelation Can Help You Decide.
O'Reilly Automotive is a large auto parts chain. The company reported a 4% sales increase and a 2% earnings jump in the first quarter of 2025. To understand the company's 2% earnings advance, you need to dig into the numbers. 10 stocks we like better than O'Reilly Automotive › O'Reilly Automotive (NASDAQ: ORLY) had a decent fiscal 2025 first quarter when you look at its overall results. But when you actually dig into the earnings release a little bit, you see that there's more here than meets the eye. Here's how this auto parts retailer really managed to increase its earnings year over year in the first quarter of 2025. O'Reilly Automotive is, at its core, a retailer. What it sells are auto parts. Not a complex business by any stretch of the imagination, though the company does serve both the do-it-yourself and the professional markets (they each have very different sales dynamics). The company operates around 6,400 stores across North America, which is a pretty big footprint. As a retailer, there are two main ways for the business to grow. The first is via new store openings. Management is planning on opening roughly 200 new locations in 2025. The other way is to do more business in the stores it already owns, which is tracked by same-store sales. In the first quarter, O'Reilly's same-store sales increased 3.6%. That's not bad at all and, when combined with new store openings, should help to drive reasonable top-line growth. When you look at the income statement from the first quarter of 2025, sales (the top line) increased by 4%. Slow and steady is hard to complain about, given the uncertainty that had consumers worried about the possibility of a recession during most of the first quarter. Earnings, however, were up only roughly 2%, which isn't quite as good as the sales growth. The difference between sales and earnings is the first sign that investors should take a closer look at O'Reilly's income statement. This is where the story gets a lot more complicated for what is a fairly simple business. O'Reilly's sales rose 4%, as noted. And while its cost of sales (basically the cost of the auto parts it sold) rose, the gross profit figure advanced year over year. So far, so good. The problem starts when you take one more step down the income statement to look at selling, general, and administrative costs. That's basically what it costs the company to run its stores. This figure went up year over year, too, and more than offset the gross profit increase. Add in a few more puts and takes along the way, and O'Reilly's net income fell year over year from $547 million in the first quarter of 2024 to $538 million in the first quarter of 2025. That's not great news. But the interesting thing is that the company's earnings-per-share figure for the quarter rose from $9.20 in the first quarter of 2024 to $9.35 in the first quarter of 2025. Net income was lower, but earnings per share was higher? That doesn't make logical sense until you examine the share count, which fell 3% year over year. So, net income was spread across fewer shares, resulting in the higher earnings figure. To be fair, O'Reilly isn't playing games or doing anything wrong. It is facing a difficult period and doing what it can to continue growing its earnings. In this case, that required buying back stock. A lot of companies do this. The problem is that the first quarter's results were, perhaps, not quite as strong as a cursory look at the earnings release might indicate. In fact, the earnings advance year over year was around 1.6%, so the stock buyback only offset part of the profit impact of the company's rising costs. If you own O'Reilly or are thinking about buying it, you might want to pay a little more attention to the company's rising operating costs. They could be a bigger headwind than you think. 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The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is O'Reilly Automotive Worth Buying? This Surprising Q1 Revelation Can Help You Decide. was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
