Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) shares soared more than 8% since the company’s reported Q2 results on Tuesday. Q2 EPS came in at $3.67, better than the Street estimate of $2.93. Revenue was $3.98 billion, missing the Street estimate of $4.06 billion.
The company delivered a sequential acceleration in both grocery and prepared food same-store sales (up 21.7% and up 10.9% on a three-year geometric basis, respectively), which marked the best three-year performance since 2018, reflecting the benefit of price increases.
Furthermore, OPEX growth was a positive surprise as the company made good progress on improving store productivity, which combined with lower credit card fees, resulted in annual guidance moving to the low end of the previous range. The company expects fiscal 2023 same-store inside sales growth in the range of 5%-7%.