Strong sales and an increase in customer visits contributed to strong second-quarter results for Casey’s General Stores Inc., prompting the Ankeny-based retailer to revise its outlook for fiscal 2026.

Casey’s is now projecting fiscal 2026 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to increase 15% to 17%, company leaders said during an earnings call on Wednesday. Officials also expect same-store sales to increase 3% to 4%.

“Our ability to drive guests to the pump with our strong inside offerings remains a strategic advantage for the company,” Darren Rebelez, Casey’s chairman, president and CEO, said during the call. The sale of whole pizzas did “exceptionally well” thanks in part to Casey’s promotions of Thin Crust Thursdays and College Football Saturdays, he said. The result “shows that we can be creative with our promotional activity and balance margin performance.”

During the earnings call, Rebelez was asked about competition from other convenience stores. The Des Moines-area is among the most competitive in the U.S. for convenience stores, with regional chains competing for customers on a daily basis, he said. Regional convenience stores in the area include Casey’s, Kwik Star, Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh, and Maverick, which acquired Kum & Go and rebranded the stores.

“We face three of those regional competitors and we perform exceptionally well,” Rebelez said. “I feel very comfortable in our ability to compete at the highest level with the regional players in the industry. … They do well at what they do, and we do well at what we do. Those things aren’t always the same, but I think we can look market by market where we have that more intense competition, and we do very well there.”

For the quarter that ended on Oct. 31, Casey’s reported net income of $206.3 million, up 14% from the same period a year ago when net income was $180.9 million. Casey’s diluted earnings per share in the second quarter increased 9.8% to $5.53 from $4.85 in the same period a year ago.

Other highlights from Casey’s second-quarter earnings report include:

• Total revenue of $4.5 billion, a 14.1% increase from the same period a year ago when total revenue was $3.9 billion.
• A 13% increase of total inside sales from a year ago to $1.65 billion, up from $1.46 billion in the same period a year ago. Grocery and general merchandise same-store sales increased 2.7% from a year ago and prepared food and dispensed beverage same-store sales increased 4.8%.
• Over 906.6 million gallons of fuel were sold during the second quarter, a 16.8% increase from the 775.9 million gallons sold during the same period a year ago.  

During the second quarter, Casey repurchased about $31 million of shares.  At its December meeting, Casey’s board of directors approved a quarterly dividend of 57 cents per share, payable Feb. 13 to shareholders of record on Feb. 1.

Casey’s, the third largest convenience store chain in the U.S., operates over 2,900 stores in 19 states.

To read the news release about Casey’s second-quarter results, click here.