Shares of AutoZone Inc. AZO dropped 1.8% in premarket trading Tuesday, are the auto parts retailer reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations, while the domestic commercial business fell short of forecasts. Net income for the quarter to Aug. 26 rose to $864.89 million, or $46.46 a share, from $810.0 million, or $40.51 a share, in the year-ago period. The FactSet consensus for earnings per share was $45.17. Net sales grew 6.4% to $5.69 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $5.61 billion, while total domestic commercial sales increased 3.9% to $1.499 billion to miss expectations of $1.55 billion. Meanwhile, same-store sales rose 4.5% to beat the FactSet consensus of 2.4% growth, as domestic sales increased 1.7% and international sales jumped 34.1%. “Despite lower than expected growth in domestic Commercial, we believe that the initiatives we have in place and are implementing will drive stronger growth in fiscal 2024,” said Chief Executive Bill Rhodes. “Additionally, we continued to be pleased with our International stores’ performance and we are excited about future growth prospects across both Mexico and Brazil.” The stock has gained 2.3% year to date through Monday, while the S&P 500 SPX has advanced 16.0%.
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