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I have to admit I'm not very familiar with Casey's General Stores. Casey's are primarily located in Iowa,Missouri,and Illinios,but with over 1400 locations one may very well be in your neighborhood. The information I have read makes me think Casey's isn't much different from any of the other neighborhood convenient stores,but Casey's I think are delivering better results than some of the other store chains.
Casey's has the gas,hotdogs,chips,and the usual sandwiches,but the results tell me there must be something else. Even in these troubling times Casey's seem to be moving right along.
The atmosphere can't be much different or any better than Cracker Barrel,of which I have dined in and bought some of their merchandise. So we'll delve into the financials and the next time I'm in Indiana I'll visit a Casey's as I think they have about 24 locations there.
At first glance on a day when the Dow is down 220 points,Casey's actually closed at $25.30 up .91 cents. Casey's reported 4th quarter and 2008 annual earnings on June 11th. We'll look at the 2008 annual earnings as this will give us a clearer picture of Casey's financial situation. For 2008 Casey's netted $1.68 per share,but I noticed only .28 cents for the 4th quarter. The report I'm reading was posted by Business Wire and it breaks sales into different categories.
Casey's sets annual goals for each category,so we'll start with gasoline. First let me say the old tale that gas outlets operates on 2 or 3 cents per gallon profit was exactly that,a tale. Casey's set goals for 2008 on gas to increase sales by 2% with a average 10.7 cents per gallon profit and they reported very nice numbers.Casey's averaged a net of 13.9 cents per gallon and gross profit rose to $169.9 million on gas sales only.
Casey's set some lofty goals for groceries and other merchandise. The goal was to increase same store sales by 4.3% and average a net margin of 32.2% on products sold. Casey's exceeded those goals with same store sales up 7.3% and a margin of 33.1% on average. Casey's store rang the registers to the tune of $942 million and gross profit was up 11.9% to $311.9 million.
For prepared food and fountain drinks Casey's set goals of an 8.4 % same store sales increase with an average margin of 62%. Not bad!. They bettered those goals with a same store sales increase of 9.8% on an average margin of 62.3%. Total sales for this category were up 12.8% to $301 million and gross profit was up 13.4% to $188 million.
Casey's had an ambitious goal of acquiring 50 stores and building 10 new stores. Due to a challenging business environment for 2008 Casey's acquired 12 stores and built none. They will continue to expand as properties become available.
Casey's has again set some lofty goals for 2009 and I feel they will meet them. The business environment for this year hopefully will improve and either way Casey's will grow. Also,at the June annual meeting Casey's raised their quarterly dividend to 7.5 cents per share.
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