O’Reilly Automotive Inc. has announced record revenues and earnings for its third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2017.
Sales for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2017, increased $119 million, or 5 percent, to $2.34 billion from $2.22 billion for the same period one year ago. Gross profit for the third quarter increased to $1.23 billion (or 52.6 percent of sales) from $1.17 billion (or 52.7 percent of sales) for the same period one year ago, representing an increase of 5 percent.
Net income for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2017, increased $5 million, or 2 percent, to $284 million (or 12.1 percent of sales) from $278 million (or 12.5 percent of sales) for the same period one year ago. Diluted earnings per common share for the third quarter increased 11 percent to $3.22 on 88 million shares versus $2.90 on 96 million shares for the same period one year ago. The company adopted a new share-based compensation accounting standard during the first quarter of this year, which requires excess tax benefits from share-based compensation payments to be recorded in the income statement. The company’s diluted earnings per common share of $3.22 for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2017, includes a 2-cent benefit from the adoption of the new accounting standard.
Greg Henslee, O’Reilly’s CEO, commented, “Our comparable store sales results of 1.8 percent were solidly in our guidance range of one to three percent for the quarter, as we continued to face a challenging demand environment and experienced severe weather in various parts of the country. Despite the challenges, Team O’Reilly delivered an 11 percent increase in third quarter diluted earnings per share to $3.22, and I would like to thank our team members for their unwavering commitment to our long-term success and for their dedication to providing exceptional service to every customer who depends on O’Reilly for their automotive needs.”
“The long-term demand drivers for our industry remain intact and positive, including increasing annual miles driven and a growing and aging vehicle fleet, and we remain very confident in our team’s ability to take market share by executing our dual-market strategy and providing consistently excellent customer service, regardless of the demand environment. During the fourth quarter, we will face headwinds from an additional Sunday, which is our lowest volume day, and from a calendar shift of the Christmas holiday from a Sunday to a Monday. Based on an expected continuation of the business trends we experienced in the first nine months of this year and these calendar headwinds, we are setting our fourth quarter comparable store sales guidance at a range of 0 to 2 percent.”
