O’Reilly posts strong Q1, on pace for 205 net new stores in 2015

New York -- O’Reilly Automotive posted a strong first quarter, laying the foundation for continued growth in 2015. America’s second largest retailer in the automotive aftermarket industry said its expansion plans are on track after profit rose in the first quarter on higher sales and better margins, continuing a trend of 15% or greater profit growth for the past six years. The company said it plans to build a new distribution center in Texas to help support its 205 new stores in 2015.



O’Reilly reported a profit of $212.9 million, or $2.06 a share, up from $173.9 million, or $1.61 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 10% to $1.9 billion, topping the consensus of $1.86 billion. Same store sales rose 7.2% from the year-ago period.



"We are extremely proud to once again report another profitable quarter and a very successful start to 2015. Demand in our industry remained strong throughout the quarter, and our relentless focus on providing unsurpassed levels of service to our customers yielded a very strong 7.2% increase in comparable store sales, which was on top of an increase of 6.3% in the first quarter of 2014,” said President and CEO Greg Henslee. “Our ongoing focus on profitable growth successfully translated these impressive top-line results into a record first quarter operating margin of 18.4% and diluted earnings per share of $2.06, which is a 28% increase over the first quarter of 2014. The first quarter of 2015 represents our 25th consecutive quarter of generating diluted earnings per share growth greater than 15%. Our record-breaking results are a testament to Team O'Reilly's unwavering commitment to providing consistently high levels of service to our customers each day, and I would like to thank our over 69,000 team members for their hard work and dedication to our ongoing success."



The company raised its projection for the year to earnings between $8.42 and $8.52 a share, from $8.20 to $8.30 a share, on $7.6 billion to $7.8 billion in revenue.



"During the first quarter, we opened 67 new stores across 23 states, in both new and existing markets, and we are on pace to achieve our target of 205 net, new store openings in 2015. One of the keys to our long-term success has been our robust, tiered, regional distribution network that supports our stores with industry leading parts availability. We continually evaluate the capacity in our distribution network and look for opportunities to profitably improve the level of parts availability at our stores."



As of March 31, O'Reilly Automotive Inc. operated 4,433 stores in 43 states.