AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Tuesday. The company said that it had $9.36 in earnings per share (EPS) and $2.47 billion in revenue, versus consensus estimates of $9.31 in EPS and revenue of $2.49 billion. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $8.29 and $2.39 billion in revenue.
During the quarter, AutoZone opened 16 new stores and relocated two stores in the United States, and it opened five new stores in Mexico.
Under its share repurchase program, AutoZone bought back 478 thousand shares of its common stock for $363 million, at an average price of $759 per share. At the end of the first quarter, AutoZone had $783 million remaining under its current share repurchase authorization.
On the books, AutoZone cash and cash equivalents totaled $195.54 million, up from $165.49 million in the same period from the previous year.
Bill Rhodes, chairman, president and CEO of AutoZone, commented:
I would like to thank our entire organization for delivering another quarter of very solid results. We are pleased to report our forty-first consecutive quarter of double digit earnings per share growth. We remain committed to providing superior customer service and trustworthy advice. For the quarter, we reached record first quarter sales and earnings per share while opening 21 new locations and 35 Commercial programs. We also continued with the rollout of our inventory availability initiatives, including expanding our multi-deliveries per week to 161 net additional stores. We will continue with our deliberately-paced multiple delivery rollouts in 2017, and we will continue to open more Mega Hub locations. We have opened our second distribution center in Mexico, and we are in the process of building two new domestic distribution centers. We believe these initiatives will allow us to continue to meet our customers’ needs across all selling channels. As we continue to invest capital in all our businesses, we remain committed to our disciplined approach of increasing operating earnings and utilizing our capital effectively.
Shares of AutoZone closed Monday at $776.42, with a consensus analyst price target of $857.00 and a 52-week trading range of $681.01 to 819.54. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was up over 1% at $785.00 in early trading indications Tuesday.
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