Autozone Inc (NYSE:AZO) stock rose 0.94% (As on December 5, 11:16:04 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company posted a better-than-expected 10% rise in quarterly profit as demand for its Do-It-Yourself (DIY) kits benefited from more people maintaining their existing vehicles instead of buying new ones. First-quarter net income rose to $593 million, compared with $539 million, a year ago. During the quarter, AutoZone Inc opened 17 new stores in the U.S., five in Mexico, and four in Brazil, while closing one U.S. store, resulting in a net increase of 25 stores. The total store count now stands at 7,165. The company reported sales per average store of $575 thousand and sales per average square foot of $86. The balance sheet of AZOshowed an inventory increase of 3.0% over the previous year, attributed to new store growth. The net inventory per store was negative $197 thousand, an improvement from negative $249 thousand the previous year. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $282.9 million, and the company had a stockholders’ deficit of $5.2 billion, reflecting its significant share repurchase investments over time.

From an operational perspective, AZO generated $830.3 million in cash flow from operations and spent $235.4 million on capital expenditures. The company’s inventory turnover remained stable at 1.5 times.

AZO in the first quarter of FY 24 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $32.55, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $31.49 per share, according to LSEG data. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 5.1 percent to $4.19 billion in the first quarter of FY 24, which is inline with the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $4.19 billion. Domestic same store sales saw a modest increase of 1.2%, while international sales surged by 25.1% in constant currency terms. The company experienced a notable improvement in gross profit, which as a percentage of sales, reached 52.8%, marking an increase of 279 basis points over the prior year. This improvement was primarily driven by non-cash LIFO favorability and favorable supply chain costs. Operating profit rose by 17.4% to $848.6 million. Despite these positive figures, operating expenses as a percentage of sales increased slightly to 32.6%, compared to 31.9% last year, mainly due to higher domestic store payroll and investments in technology. The company’s aggressive share repurchase program continued, with 580 thousand shares bought back at an average price of $2,590 per share, totaling an investment of $1.5 billion for the quarter.