ORLY O Reilly Automotive Inc

AutoZone Inc. (AZO) announced that its Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of $750 million of the company's common stock in addition to its existing share repurchase program.

The company’s board last increased the share repurchase authorization by $500 million on June 14, 2011. This raised the cumulative share repurchase authorization from $9.9 billion to $10.4 billion.

In the fourth quarter of its fiscal year, AutoZone repurchased 1.5 million shares of its common stock for $433 million, reflecting an average price of $289. This has brought the total share repurchase to 5.6 million shares of its common stock valued at $1.5 billion, implying an average price of $262, for fiscal 2011.

Since the inception of the repurchase program in 1998, the company has authorized share repurchases worth $11.2 billion, including the above amount. At the end of the fourth quarter, the company had $219 million remaining under its current share repurchase authorization. Therefore, the company has $969 million worth of shares available for repurchase under the program as of today.

AutoZone, a Zacks #2 Rank (Buy) company, posted a 12.1% increase in profit to $301.5 million in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year ended August 27, 2011 from $268.9 million in the year-ago quarter. On a per-share basis, profits rose 26.9% to $7.18 from $5.66 in the year-ago quarter, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $6.98.

Net sales grew 8.1% to $2.64 billion, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.61 billion. Domestic same store sales, i.e., sales for stores open for at least one year, rose 4.5% during the quarter.

In the fiscal year ended August 27, 2011, AutoZone’s profit rose 15% to $849.0 million from $738.3 million in the prior fiscal year. On per share basis, profits increased 30% to $19.47 from $14.97 in the previous fiscal year, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $19.22.

Net sales escalated 9.6% to $8.07 billion, up from the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $8.04 billion. Domestic same store sales went up 6.3% during the fiscal year. Operating profit increased 13.3% to $1.49 billion from $1.32 billion a year ago. Consequently, operating margin was 18.5% versus 17.9% last year.

AutoZone is one of the nation’s leading specialty retailers of automotive replacement parts and accessories, operating in the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) retail, Do-It-for-Me (DIFM) commercial and other customer markets. It competes with O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) and Advance Auto Parts Inc. (AAP), both of which have posted an impressive rise in profits during their last reported quarters.

 
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