Under its share repurchase program, AutoZone repurchased 633 thousand shares of its common stock for $430 million during the fourth quarter, at an average price of $680 per share. (NYSE:AZO). Jefferies has a Hold rating on the shares. The stock is now challenging the upper end of a month and a half long trading range at the highs of the year. The company’s 50-day moving average is $722.37 and its 200 day moving average is $691.12.
Net income increased 7.4% to $401.1 million and earnings per share increased 13% to $12.75 from $11.28. The firm has a market cap of $23.04 billion and a P/E ratio of 20.09. Analysts expected EPS of $12.69.
Analysts on average were expecting the company to report earnings of $12.69 per share on revenue of $3.25 billion for the most recent quarter.
The Memphis Tennessee-based company, which is now valued at $22.49 billion, has a median Wall Street price target of $742.00 with a high target of $865.00. Earnings per share growth benefited from the stock buyback activity during the quarter, which enabled AutoZone to report its 36th consecutive quarter of double-digit earnings growth. Finally, Gabelli cut shares of AutoZone from a buy rating to a hold rating and dropped their price target for the company from $792.00 to $703.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Deutsche Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of AutoZone in a report on Tuesday. Net sales rose 7.9 percent to $3.29 billion from last year’s $3.05 billion. They noted that the move was a valuation call. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The total value of the transaction was $2,043,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.
AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO), the second-largest retailer of aftermarket automotive parts and accessories in the United States, announced its earnings for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 ending August 30 before the bell today.
Compared to other peers in the Auto Parts Stores sector, AutoZone has outperformed in terms of quarterly revenue growth year over year at 0.07 vs. the industry average of 0.05. Each shop carries a product line for sport utility vehicles, automobiles, vans and light trucks, including new and remanufactured automotive hard parts, maintenance items, accessories and non-automotive products.