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What: Shares of Monro Muffler Brake (MNRO 0.38%) were accelerating higher today, gaining as much as 13% after posting a strong earnings report.
So what: The auto repair service delivered earnings per share of $0.25 in line with estimates, while revenues jumped 14.1% to $195.9 million, beating the expert view of $190.4 million. Despite the increase in overall sales, same-store sales, seen as a better measure of organic growth, fell 5.6% after adjusting for an increase in calendar days. However, that was still better than the company's projection of -6% to -9%. EPS guidance for the current quarter was also below estimates as Monro expects $0.42-$0.46, worse than the consensus at $0.48. Management noted "the continued impact of the challenging economic environment" as part of the reason for the underwhelming projection.
Now what: The jump in Monro shares seems to have come mostly from low expectations as the revenue beat was mostly due to an acquisition that contributed more than 20% of total sales. Shareholders may have also liked the announced 10% dividend increase, boosting the yield slightly to 0.95%. Management also said it saw an improvement in comparable sales after January once the weather improved, and expects comparable sales growth of 3-4% in the current quarter so the company appears to be moving in the right direction once again.
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