Murphy USA on Thursday reported bright spots in tobacco, foodservice and center store sales as it continues a robust pace of new store openings, despite the negative impact of storms on fuel sales and ongoing concerns around consumer confidence.
But the El Dorado, Arkansas-based c-store operator’s stock price fell more than 9% following the first-quarter earnings report after the retailer missed Wall Street’s consensus estimates, according to the website Earnings Whispers.
Murphy USA reported net income of $53.2 million for the quarter ended March 31, down 24% from a year ago.
Merchandise contribution dollars increased 2.3% to $195.9 million during the quarter.
President and CEO Andrew Clyde said the results “fell slightly short of internal expectations.”
“If there’s one thing that has stood out over the past decade, it’s that every quarter is just a little bit different,” Clyde told analysts Thursday. “Like a thing we have here in south Arkansas: If you don’t like the weather right now, just wait a few minutes.”
- Murphy USA is No. 4 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
The “number, location and magnitude” of storms impacted same-store gallons of fuel sold by 50 basis points, as the number of store closure days almost doubled compared to a year ago.
“We believe return-to-office mandates … will enhance the longer-term outlook on fuel demand,” Clyde said. “That said, it’s too early to pinpoint any benefit in the current quarter.”
In center store, candy sales rose 15% compared to the year-ago period. Packaged beverages and general merchandise are also bright spots for Murphy USA, he noted.
And the retailer continues to gain share in cigarettes, smokeless and other nicotine products.
“It’s extremely important to remember how much share we’ve taken since 2021 and how much we’ve outperformed the industry over the least four years,” he said. “From 2021 through 2024, cigarette volume in the Murphy network has been about flat, while the market has lost roughly 20%.”
Total nicotine contribution rose 2.8% on a same-store basis during the first quarter.
The retailer’s QuickChek foodservice brand, thanks to a menu innovation boost, is also seeing growth: Sandwich units sold increased 8% during the quarter and breakfast traffic is also up, fueling a nearly 1% total increase in food-and-beverage sales.
“We still have work to do,” Clyde said.
As consumers continue to feel pressure from inflation and tariff concerns, Murphy is seeing an uptick in more-affluent shoppers, those who make between $55,000 and $100,000 or more per year. That demographic group used to make up 40% of the members of the company’s rewards program and they now make up almost half of the membership base.
“We are seeing purchase behavior remain fairly static across income cohorts, meaning we are not seeing any incremental weakness from our lower-income consumer,” Clyde said.
Murphy USA opened eight new stores during the first quarter, with 18 new stores and 20 rebuilds currently in the pipeline.
“Our new stores continue to perform well, with our 2022 and 2023 build classes outperforming the fleet average by nearly 20% in gallons and nearly 40% in merchandising marketing,” Murphy CFO Galagher Jeff said.
Murphy USA operated a total of 1,761 stores as of March 31.
Murphy USA operates one of the nation’s largest convenience-store chains, operating in 27 states, located primarily in the Southwest, Southeast, Midwest and Northeast, the majority of which are next to Walmart Supercenters. It acquired the QuickChek brand in January 2021.
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