(By Balaseshan) Casey's General Stores Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY), which operates convenience stores, reported a marginal decrease in quarterly earnings due to lower revenue and higher expenses. Earnings exceeded Street's expectations, sending its shares up 3.04% in aftermarket.
Earnings for the first quarter were $39.03 million or $1.01 per share, compared to $39.39 million or $1.03 per share last year. Revenue decreased to $1.868 billion from $1.874 billion.
Analysts, on average, polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a profit of $0.95 per share on revenue of $1.93 billion for the first quarter.
In Gasoline segment, same-store gallons sold declined 0.2% with an average margin of 14.9 cents per gallon. In Grocery and Other Merchandise segment, same-store sales rose 2.6% from last year with an average margin of 33.4%.
In Prepared Food and Fountain segment, same-store sales were up 10.6% from the same period a year ago, with average margin of 63.5%.
At its September meeting, the board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.165 per share. The dividend is payable November 15 to shareholders of record on November 1.
Looking ahead into the fiscal 2013, the company expects to increase same-store gasoline gallons sold 1% with an average margin of 14.0 cents per gallon. Casey's annual goal was to increase same-store sales from Grocery and Other Merchandise 6.2% with an average margin of 32.7%.
The company's goal for fiscal 2013 was to increase same-store prepared food and fountain sales 11% with an average margin of 61.1%. The company expects to increase the total number of stores 4%-6%.
CASY closed Monday's regular session down 1.49% at $55.66. The stock has been trading between $41.72 and $63.00 for the past 52 weeks.