O’Reilly Auto shares spike on record earnings

O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (Nasdaq: ORLY) shares rose as much as 17 percent this week after the company reported its latest earnings.

This morning, O’Reilly Automotive’s shares traded as high as $262.87. The company’s 52-week range is $169.43 to $279.23.

The Springfield-based auto parts retailer reported record first-quarter net income of $304.9 million, a 15 percent increase from $264.9 million a year earlier. Diluted share earnings rose by 78 cents to $3.61, according to a news release.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $2.3 million, also a company record for the first quarter.

“Our team’s dedication to excellent customer service drove a 3.4 percent increase in comparable store sales, which was above the mid-point of our guidance for the first quarter, and our relentless focus on profitable growth translated this top-line performance into a 5 percent increase in operating profit dollars and a 28 percent increase in diluted earnings per share for the first quarter,” O’Reilly Automotive CEO Greg Henslee said in the release.

First-quarter financial notes:
    •    O’Reilly Automotive repurchased 2.2 million shares of its stock for an investment of $549 million.
    •    The company added 78 new stores during the quarter to bring its total to 5,097.
    •    Total employment moved up by 2.4 percent to 76,946.

As of March 31, O’Reilly Automotive had $7.7 billion in assets, according to the release.