Gasoline and convenience retail chain Murphy USA (NYSE: MUSA) of El Dorado on Wednesday reported lower profit on falling fuel prices and rising in-store operating expenses.
Second-quarter net income was $132.8 million, down more than 38% from the same period a year ago. On a per-share basis, earnings came to $6.02, down from $7.53 in the second quarter of 2022.
The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $6.09 per share.
Revenue in the period was $5.59 billion, which also missed Wall Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $5.61 billion.
Total retail gallons sold increased 2.3% over last year, but the total contribution from fuel sales declined to 29.5 cents per gallon from 34.9 cents per gallon a year ago.
Operating expenses in the quarter totaled $256.7 million, an increase of $4.5 million compared to a year ago. Murphy USA attributed the increase mainly due to employee-related expenses, store maintenance costs and inventory shrink costs.
The company highlighted growing merchandise sales, which contributed $206.8 million in the quarter. That’s a 5.1% increase from a year ago.
In a statement, President & CEO Andrew Clyde said the company maintained its fuel market share in the quarter while delivering incremental in-store growth against exceptional results in 2022.
“Our strong year-to-date performance in an environment with markedly less volatility reaffirms our belief that the structural change in fuel margins is not only sustainable, but also closer to the high-end of our expectations,” he said. “We remain confident in our ability to track favorably against our full-year guidance and are well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunities ahead.”
Shares of the company were down less than 1% on Thursday. Year to date, shares were up about 9%.
Murphy USA ended the quarter with 1,725 locations, which includes 159 QuickChek stores.
The Associated Press contributed information to this report.
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