On Wednesday, following a cut to its full-year guidance, and a reduction in its dividend, Advanced Auto Parts (AAP) closed down a massive 35%.
The auto parts retailer widely missed Wall Street consensus estimates of a first quarter earnings per share of $2.65, with the actual number coming in at just $0.72. The company’s top line revenue came in a $3.42 billion, slightly missing estimates of $3.43 billion.
In the company’s earnings release, CEO Tom Greco wrote, “While we anticipated the first quarter would be challenging, our results were below our expectations. We expect the competitive dynamics we faced in the first quarter to continue, resulting in a shortfall to our 2023 expectations. We have reduced our full-year guidance and our board of directors made the difficult decision to reduce our quarterly dividend.”
The company now expects to see its FY 2023 EPS forecast at roughly $6.00 to $6.50 – a significant decline from the previous forecast of $10.20 to $11.20, which represents a 40% decline.
In order to supply “enhanced financial flexibility,” Advanced Auto Parts also reduced its quarterly dividend, from the prior $1.50 per share down to $0.25.
Full-year free cash flow expectations were also cut, from the previous forecast of $400 million to between $200 million to $300 million. The retailer’s full-year store openings target was also cut from a previous expectation of between 60 to 80, to between 40 and 60.
Shares of rival auto parts dealers O’Reilly Automotive (ORLY) and AutoZone (AZO) also fell on Wednesday, with each dropping almost 3%.