Why Are Casey’s General Stores Shares Tumbling After Strong Fiscal Q1 Results?

Investing.com — Casey’s General Stores tumbled 10.1% in after-hours trading after the company delivered fiscal first-quarter figures that beat headline analyst estimates but fell short of the growth trajectory investors had already priced into the stock.

Adjusted earnings per share came in at $7.37, comfortably above the analyst consensus of $6.68, while revenue totaled $5.68 billion, edging out the $5.57 billion expected and representing a roughly 24% year-over-year gain. Despite those headline beats, the stock sold off sharply as decelerating same-store sales growth and a full-year outlook left unchanged overshadowed the profit and revenue improvements.

The market’s response underscores the elevated expectations heading into the print. In the weeks prior, several Wall Street firms had cut their price targets — Deutsche Bank trimmed its target from $1,000 to $927, JPMorgan lowered its from $975 to $833, and UBS kept a Neutral rating while reducing its target from $945 to $925. That wariness reflected doubts about whether Casey’s could sustain the momentum generated by its record fiscal 2026 results, which included diluted EPS of $19.16 and nearly $1.5 billion in EBITDA.

CEO Darren Rebelez said the company was “off to a great start” on its three-year strategic plan, pointing to a nearly 28% increase in diluted EPS, but the market’s focus remained squarely on the deceleration in comparable-store metrics.

Taken together, the combination of a headline earnings beat accompanied by softer same-store sales trends, a management team that held its full-year guidance steady rather than lifting it, and a share price that had already pulled back from its 52-week high of $927.85 created the conditions for a pronounced after-hours reaction. Shares settled at $659.73 — still well above the 52-week low of $497.38 but meaningfully off their recent highs.

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