Casey's General Stores' (NASDAQ: CASY) fiscal first-quarter 2020 results, released on Sept. 9, revealed a slight top-line increase of 1.5%, and double-digit earnings-per-share growth of 22%. Although investors were ambivalent over the company's quarterly scorecard, recently appointed CEO Darren Rebelez sees much potential for longer-term growth.
Rebelez, the former president of Dine Brands Global's IHOP chain, took over in June from retiring CEO Terry Handley. During Casey's earnings conference call, investors were able to hear executive feedback on Casey's existing strategic plans from a fresh perspective. Below, we'll review three of Rebelez's comments that indicate a generally positive opinion of the company's current direction.
During the first quarter, in the fuel category, we experienced a favorable fuel margin environment combined with our ability to leverage the implementation of Price Advantage, which is our fuel price optimization tool. These factors enabled us to achieve an average fuel margin of $0.244 per gallon, up nearly 400 basis points from the same period last year. This drove over a 22% increase in gross profit dollars from the fuel category.