Investing.com -- Shares in Caseys General Stores Inc (NASDAQ:CASY) fell slightly in after-hours trading even after the Midwest convenience store chain ended its 2016 Fiscal Year with record earnings, as investors focused more intently on declining revenues last quarter.
For the company's fourth quarter, which ended in late-April, Casey's General Store reported a net profit of $47 million or 1.19 per share. By comparison, the Ankeny, Iowa-based company posted earnings of $41.3 million or 1.05 per share over the same quarter a year ago. For the three-month period, earnings rose 14% as stronger margins outweighed the impact of relatively cheap gasoline prices on the company's sales. While revenues at established store surged by 8.4%, Casey's failed to meet its own company targeted goals of 10.4% growth among its prepared food-and-fountain division.
In terms of fuel, Casey's increased same store gallons by 3% with an average margin of 19.6, far exceeding its own targets of 2% comparable store sales and 16.7 margin. Among the company's Grocery and Other Merchandise segment, Casey's saw a 7.1% spike in same-store sales along with an average margin of 31.9% in line with forecasts of 6.2% and 31.9% respectively. The sharp increases were driven by stellar revenues among its cigarette sales.
Overall, analysts expected to see revenues of $1.57 billion for the quarter on earnings per share of 1.22.
"For the year, cigarette sales continued to lead the category as customers traded up to premium brands in response to lower retail fuel prices," Casey's General Store CEO Terry Handley said in a statement. "
Moving forward, Casey's expects to increase same-store fuel gallons sold in Fiscal Year 2017 by 2%, while achieving same-store grocery and other merchandise growth of 6.2%.
Shares in Casey's General Store fell 2.65 or 2.14% to 121.12.