AutoZone Q4 Beats Earnings Forecast but Misses Revenue, Stock Rises 6%

AZO reported fiscal fourth-quarter diluted earnings of $56.05 per share against a $54.30 consensus, a beat of $1.75, while net sales of $6.6 billion came in roughly $110 million below the $6.71 billion analysts had modeled . The stock closed the session about 6% higher at $2,977.26 . One cited wire put the beat at $1.76 on an EPS print of $56.06; AutoZone's own filed release states $56.05, so $1.75 is the figure grounded in the primary source.

Margin, not volume, carried the quarter. Gross profit reached 53.3% of sales, an expansion of 182 basis points, driven largely by a $96 million tariff refund and a LIFO benefit rather than by underlying operating leverage. That distinction matters for anyone extrapolating the beat forward, because neither item repeats on a schedule. Same-store sales tell a split story the headline number hides: domestic comparable sales rose 1.6%, while international comparable sales rose 10.7% as reported but only 1.3% in constant currency, so the blended total company figure of 2.7% reported (1.5% constant currency) is a mix of two very different demand pictures.

The expansion story is genuinely strong and genuinely international. AutoZone opened 175 stores in the quarter, of which 97 were in the United States, 68 in Mexico and 10 in Brazil, closing the fiscal year at 374 openings, the most in its history. Full-year net sales reached a record $20.3 billion, up 7.4%, with full-year diluted EPS of $152.55, up 5.3%. The company repurchased 223 thousand shares at an average of $3,125 for $697.5 million in the quarter, funded from $1.183 billion of operating cash flow against $498.8 million of capital spending.

The print pulled the sector with it: Advance Auto Parts rose about 6% and ORLY about 4% on the read-across, neither of which reported that day . Guidance for fiscal 2027 calls for gross margin flat to up 25 basis points on a GAAP basis. What to watch next is whether domestic comparable sales can move meaningfully above the 1.6% pace, since a margin beat built on a one-time tariff refund is not the same thing as a demand recovery. SentiSense data has AZO at a B rating (79th percentile) with sentiment at +0.40 latest against a +0.24 30-day average, and the shares trading at $2,894.73, up 3.3% in the session after the report.