Advance Auto Parts Q4 Loss Widens, Sales Drop; Stock Down In Pre-market

(RTTNews) - Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (AAP), an automotive aftermarket parts provider, Wednesday reported net loss of $414.78 million or $6.92 per share for the fourth quarter, significantly wider than $35.13 million or $0.59 per share in the same quarter a year ago, primarily impacted by lower revenue as well as higher expenses. The company's shares were more than 6 percent down in pre-market.

Restructuring and related expenses increased to $288.09 million from $10.31 million and cost of sales rose to $1.649 billion from $1.195 billion.

Operating loss was $820 million, higher than $42.36 million loss last year.

Net loss from continuing operations was $609.53 million or $10.16 per share, above last year's loss of $35.19 million or 0.59 per share.

Excluding one-time items, adjusted loss per share from continuing operations was $1.18 compared with $0.45 a year ago.

On average, 24 analysts expected a loss of $1.23 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Sales for the quarter decreased 0.9 percent to $1.996 billion from $2.014 billion in the previous year. The consensus estimate was for $1.93 billion.

Comparable-store sales for the fourth quarter decreased 1 percent.

For the first quarter, the company expects net sales from continuing operations to be about $2.5 billion. The Street is expecting sales of $2.62 billion.

For the full year, sales from continuing operations is expected between $8.4 billion and $8.6 billion, and adjusted EPS from continuing operations to be in the range of $1.50 - $2.50.

Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $1.56 per share on revenue of $8.51 billion for the year.

Advance Auto Parts stock had closed at $45.88, up 7.17 percent on Tuesday. It has traded in the range of $35.59 - $88.56 in the last 1 year.