O’Reilly eyes more stores following record year

More than 200 O’Reilly Automotive stores are expected to open in 2016 after the nation’s third largest auto parts retailer logged strong fourth quarter results and its 23rd consecutive year of same-store sales growth.

The retailer announced record revenue and earnings for its fourth quarter ended Dec. 31.Sales increased $185 million, or 10%, to $1.95 billion from $1.76 billion for the same period one year ago. Gross profit increased to $1.03 billion (or 52.7% of sales) from $912 million (or 51.7% of sales) for the same period one year ago, representing an increase of 13%.Net income increased $37 million, or 20%, to $219 million (or 11.2% of sales) from $182 million (or 10.3% of sales) for the same period one year ago. Diluted earnings per common share increased 24% to $2.19 on 100 million shares versus $1.76 on 103 million shares for the same period one year ago.

"We are very pleased to once again report another very profitable quarter and a very strong finish to a record breaking year," saidGreg Henslee, O'Reilly's president and CEO. "Our team's dedication to providing consistent, excellent customer service every day drove our very robust fourth quarter comparable store sales increase of 7.7%, which was on top of a strong comparable store sales increase of 6.3% in the fourth quarter of 2014. This industry leading comparable store sales performance represents our 9th consecutive quarter of comparable store sales growth greater than 5%, with increases of over 7% in each quarter of 2015. Our relentless focus on profitable growth translated our strong top line performance into a 24% increase in fourth quarter diluted earnings per share of $2.19, which represents our 28th consecutive quarter of diluted earnings per share growth greater than 15%, and I would like to thank each of our Team Members for their continued hard work and commitment to our ongoing success."

The company also announced that its board of directors approved a resolution to increase the authorization amount under its share repurchase program by an additional $750 million, raising the aggregate authorization under the program to $6.25 billion. The additional $750 million authorization is effective for a three-year period, beginning on Feb. 10. The company has approximately $750 million remaining under its current share repurchase authorizations.

Henslee added: "We are very proud of our record breaking 2015 financial results, as well as the addition of 205 net, new stores and the expansion into Connecticut, our 44th state, and we are intensely focused on extending our proven record of profitable growth in 2016. In the coming year, we expect to see continued strong demand in our industry, and more importantly, we remain very confident in our team's commitment to providing consistently high levels of service to our customers. We will, however, face very difficult same store sales comparisons in each quarter of 2016, and based on these factors, we are establishing our first quarter and full-year 2016 comparable store sales guidance ranges at 3% to 5%."

As of Dec. 31, the company operated 4,571 stores in 44 states.