Canadian Tire tops estimates on high gas prices, hikes dividend

Detailed summary

Comparable sales, excluding petroleum, rose 1.7% in the latest quarter

Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. CTC-A-T beat analysts’ estimates for its third-quarter sales and profits, and boosted its dividend, as higher gas prices drove the retailer’s growth.

Even as Canadians have been buying lower volumes of gas as they feel the pinch of higher prices, the petroleum business drove Canadian Tire’s comparable sales up 4.4 per cent in the three months ended Oct. 3, compared with the same period last year. Comparable sales – an important measure of performance that tracks sales at stores open for more than a year – rose by 1.7 per cent, excluding petroleum.

The war in the Middle East has continued to drive up costs for consumers, driving a 27.8-per-cent jump in gasoline prices in September, according to Statistics Canada.

The Toronto-based retailer, which owns the Canadian Tire, SportChek and Mark’s store banners, reported net income of $246.4-million or $4.28 per share in the quarter, compared with $191.3-million or $3.14 per share in the same period last year. That exceeded analysts’ expectations of $200.8-million or $3.68 per share, according to consensus estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ.

Comparable sales rose at all three of the company’s store banners, with seasonal and gardening categories boosting performance at the flagship Canadian Tire chain, along with continued growth in its automotive services segment. E-commerce sales also grew by 15.3 per cent.

The company’s financial services segment, which offers credit cards tied to the Triangle loyalty program, reported record revenue for the quarter.

Total revenue grew by 5.3 per cent compared with the same period last year, to $4.32-billion. That beat analysts’ estimates of $4.27-billion, according to S&P Capital IQ.

On Thursday, Canadian Tire also announced it had increased its annual dividend to $7.30 per share, up from $7.20 per share previously.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Globe and Mail (Report on Business). To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.