Dorman Products has reported that net sales for the first quarter ended April 1, 2017, increased $13.5 million, or 6.5 percent, to $221.6 million from $208.1 million for the first quarter ended 2016. Diluted Earnings Per Share for the first quarter increased 19.7 percent to 85 cents per share from 71 cents per share in the first quarter of 2016.
“We are pleased with our first quarter results and I want to thank all of our contributors who enabled us to deliver another very good quarter,” said Matt Barton, president and CEO. “Sales growth met our expectations and sound execution enabled us to deliver substantial bottom line leverage on the sales growth. Our New Product engine remains strong and we remain confident in our ability to deliver solid organic growth this year. In the quarter, we launched 1,290 new unique SKUs, a 17 percent increase over the first quarter of 2016. In addition, while our Dorman HD Solutions offering is still a relatively small part of the overall business, we remain pleased with our progress, with sales growing 24 percent year over year. We continue to invest in our Complex Electronics capabilities, with sales in these lines up 20 percent year over year. Our outlook for the business remains positive. As a result, our previously issued full-year 2017 revenue guidance remains in the mid to high single-digit growth range while net income growth is expected to be in the high single to low double-digit range.”
Gross profit for the first quarter increased 10.1 percent to $88.7 million (or 40 percent of sales) from $80.6 million (or 38.7 percent of sales) in the first quarter of 2016. Gross profit margin, on a sequential basis, remained essentially unchanged.
Included in the results is a $0.02 diluted earnings per share benefit from the adoption of a new accounting standard. The new standard changes the accounting treatment for income taxes related to stock based employee compensation. The amount of benefit, if any, in future quarters will vary.
Under its share repurchase program, Dorman repurchased 138.9 thousand shares of its common stock for $11 million at an average share price of $79.43 during the first quarter ended April 1, 2017.
