AutoZone sales up, profits down

MEMPHIS, Tenn. AutoZone reported net sales of $2.2 billion for its fourth quarter 2009, an increase of 1% from fiscal fourth quarter 2008. Excluding sales from the additional week included in the prior year's quarter, sales were up 7.1%, and domestic same-store sales, or sales for stores open at least one year, increased 5.4% for the quarter.

Net income for the quarter decreased 3.1% from the same period last year to $236.1 million, while diluted earnings per share increased 14.2% to $4.43 per share from $3.88 per share in the year-ago quarter.

"We are very pleased with our comparable performance for both the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2009. Our plan has remained generally consistent, and we have focused our efforts on enhancing the customer experience. In fiscal 2009, we again expanded our parts assortment, significantly increased the number of markets supported by our enhanced Hub store model, expanded our commercial sales force, increased formalized training, and leveraged new technologies all primarily focused on customer service improvements. As our sales performance improved, we elected to accelerate the expansion of several of these initiatives to better position us to continue to grow our sales for the future. In fiscal 2009, we experienced market share gains in each of our four businesses." said Bill Rhodes, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.