Alimentation Couche-Tard, symbol ATD.B on Toronto, is the largest convenience-store operator in Canada, with over 2,000 outlets. It also has over 3,500 U.S. stores. The Canadian stores operate under the Couche-Tard and Mac’s banners, while the U.S. stores mainly use the Circle K brand. Couche-Tard sells fuel at over 68% of its stores.
We analyze Couche-Tard in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that gives you Canadian stock tips for the part of your aggressive investing.
In the three months ended April 24, 2011, earnings excluding one-time items rose 19.0%, to $64.0 million, or $0.35 a share. A year earlier, Couche-Tard earned $53.8 million, or $0.30 a share (all figures except share prices in U.S. dollars). The latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.30 a share.
Revenue rose 20.9%, to $4.8 billion from $4.0 billion. Same-store sales climbed 3.6% in the U.S., but fell 2.1% in Canada. The company gets 79.3% of its sales from the U.S.
During the quarter, the company bought seven stores and built nine new outlets. In May 2011, it bought 11 stores in Ontario and western Canada. Also in May, Couche-Tard bought four Gas City stores in the Chicago area, and one in Arizona. Then in June, it bought 322 stores in southern California, and 26 more stores in east-coast states.
Couche-Tard is a dividend paying stock. It has just raised its quarterly dividend by 25%, to $0.0625 a share from $0.05 a share. The new annual rate of $0.25 yields 0.8%.
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