Bull Of The Day: Casey’s

Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (CASY – Snapshot Report) is seeing strong momentum as gasoline prices fall and the American consumer buys more in their convenience stores. This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) recently reported record first quarter results.

Founded in 1959 in Des Moines, Iowa, Casey’s General Stores opened its first general store in 1968. It now operates 1,850 convenience stores in 14 Midwestern states. It’s the 10th largest convenience store chain in the United States.

If you’re not familiar with Casey’s, it could be because you live in a major metropolitan area. 57% of its stores are located in towns with less than 5,000 people.

It combines gasoline sales, with a convenience store and many offer its famous made-from-scratch pizza. Casey’s is the 5th largest pizza chain in the United States. Because of its focus on small town America, it is often the only pizza restaurant in town.

Record First Quarter

On Sep 8, Casey’s reported its fiscal first quarter 2016 results which ended on July 31, 2015. It beat the Zacks Consensus again, this time by 11.4%.

It has beat the Zacks Consensus six quarters in a row.

Earnings per share rose 23% even though its fuel margin declined 1.4 cents per gallon over the prior year because of margin expansion in prepared foods.

Same-store-sales in Prepared Foods and Fountain rose 10.3% with an average margin of 62.5%. The company has remodeled some stores, converted others to 24-hour service, and started delivering pizzas. Lower ingredient and supply costs also added to the improved margins.

Grocery sales were also strong with Grocery and Other Merchandise same store sales rising 7%. Cigarette sales were strong throughout the quarter.

In the fuel category, it grew same-store gallons sold by 3.4%, higher than its goal of 2% for the fiscal year. Casey’s had its managers quickly respond to price changes by competitors as the fuel market remained volatile.

Solid Numbers in August