O'Reilly chairman sheds $4.38M in shares

O’Reilly disposed of 74,121 shares Aug. 27 and another 75,879 shares the next day; each share was priced at $29.17, according to the filing.

Following the transactions, O’Reilly now owns 2,392,909 shares, which include 1,831,057 shares that he holds as trustee for his children and 7,360 shares in the company’s 401(k) plan.

Meanwhile, fellow board member Rosalie O’Reilly Wooten on Aug. 28 sold 850 shares of common stock at $29.52 each, and on Sept. 2 sold 20,000 shares, each for $30, for a total of $625,095, according to separate SEC filings. She retains 1,083,081 shares.

The Springfield-based auto-parts retailer has 133.97 million outstanding shares.

These stock moves come on the heels of O’Reilly Automotive’s July 11 acquisition of Phoenix-based CSK Auto Group, for $500 million plus an assumption of $500 million in debt, and a second-quarter sales increase of 9.5 percent to $704 million, compared to the same period last year. Comparable sales for stores open at least a year were up 3.4 percent in the quarter.

O’Reilly Automotive (Nasdaq: ORLY) estimates 2008 per-share earnings of $1.50 to $1.54. Shares closed at $28.99 Sept. 10, compared to a 52-week range of $21.92 to $36.60.

This story originally appeared in SBJ’s Sept. 8 free e-news Daily Update. Click here to register.