O’Reilly Auto’s 2Q sales climb 9.5 percent

The Springfield-based retailer Tuesday night reported $55.8 million in second-quarter net income, up 7.5 percent from $51.9 million in the same quarter last year. Earnings were 48 cents per share, compared to 45 cents a year ago.

Sales totaled $704 million, compared to $642 million last year. Gross profit for the quarter was $317 million – or 45 percent of sales – up 10.4 percent from $287 million a year ago.

Comparable store sales for stores open at least a year were up 3.4 percent for the quarter.

The company estimates earnings for 2008 will be between $1.50 and $1.54 per share. The year’s comparable store sales are expected to range from 2 percent to 3 percent for existing stores and -3 percent to -1 percent for CSK Auto Corp. stores gained in O’Reilly’s acquisition of the company earlier this month.

“On July 11, O’Reilly and CSK became one team of 40,000 members, operating over 3,200 stores in 38 states, and we’re looking very forward to beginning the integration process and working together to become an even more dominant force in the auto parts business in the western half of the U.S.,” O’Reilly CEO and Co-President Greg Henslee said in a news release.

Shares (Nasdaq: ORLY) closed Tuesday at $24.04 and were trading at $25.32 as of 11:15 this morning. The 52-week range is $21.92 to $38.20.