Murphy USA Inc. announced strong second-quarter financial results Wednesday afternoon, reporting $46.3 million in net income, or $1.17 per diluted share on the strength of higher fuel sale revenue at the El Dorado-based gas and convenience retailer.
Publicly traded Murphy USA (Nasdaq: MUSA) said that six-month profits more than doubled to $132.2 million compared with $49.1 million for the first six months last year. Second-quarter retail fuel dollars rose more than 22 percent year over year as total merchandise sales rose 3 percent, driven by new store additions.
The company opened eight retail locations in the quarter, not including seven locations that were razed and rebuilt, bringing its store count to 1,344 locations, including 226 Murphy Express sites. Forty stores are now under construction, according to a company news release.
Overall station operating expenses rose $2.8 million in the quarter, reflecting new store additions. The company also said it had repurchased 244,000 shares of common stock during the quarter at an average price of $70. The outlay for those shares was $17 million, part of a previously announced program to repurchase up to $500 million in stock.
“Second quarter results showcased the benefits of our differentiated fuel-driven business model,” company President and CEO Andrew Clyde said in a statement. “We continue to demonstrate tangible progress among the core elements of our formula for value creation as we accelerate new store additions, generate record merchandise margins and diligently focus on cost-control initiatives, all of which result in strong improvement to our fuel breakeven metric.”
The company, which spun off from Murphy Oil Corp. of El Dorado in 2013, will host a conference call at 10 a.m. CDT Thursday to discuss the results. Murphy USA stock closed on Wednesday at $74.78, up 31 cents.
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