What happened
Advance Auto Parts' (AAP -2.67%) stock shifted violently into reverse this week. According to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, the auto parts retailer's shares were down by nearly 13% week to date as of Thursday evening. It isn't hard to figure out why.
So what
The culprit is Advance's fiscal second-quarter results, for the period ended July 16, which were released after market hours on Tuesday. These revealed that the company's net sales rose, albeit slightly, by under 1% year over year to $2.67 billion for the period. That was on the back of a decline at roughly the same rate for same-store sales.
Advance's net profit also advanced, but again this wasn't at an inspiring rate. The quarter's non-GAAP (adjusted) net income was a shade under $228 million ($3.74 per share), less than 3% higher than in the second quarter of 2021.
Neither headline figure met the consensus analyst estimates, although the whiffs weren't too bad. On average, prognosticators tracking Advance stock were modeling $2.75 billion on the top line, and a per-share adjusted net income of $3.76.
Now what
Citing macroeconomic concerns, Advance management trimmed its guidance for the full year. It now expects to book $11 billion to $11.2 billion in net sales, with adjusted earnings per share coming in at $12.75 to $13.25. Under the previous guidance those two ranges were, respectively, $11.2 billion to $11.5 billion and $13.30 to $13.85.
Compounding the twin misses and the guidance cut were a raft of price target cuts from analysts. Among the cutters was Evercore ISI's Greg Melich. Melich not only lowered the stock's price target to $215 from $230, he also removed Advance stock from his company's SMID Cap Best Idea List. Other analysts made similar chops to their price targets, although as of late Thursday none had downgraded their recommendations.
