Caseys General Stores, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 Casey General Store earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, this call may be recorded. I would like to turn the call over to Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss the results from our first quarter ended July 31, 2025. I'm Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development. With me today are Darren Rivelas, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, as well as Steve Bramlage, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'll remind you that certain statements made by us during this investor call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. include any statements relating to the potential impact of the FIQS transaction, expectations for future periods, possible or assumed future results of operations, financial conditions, liquidity and related sources or needs, the company's supply chain, business and integration strategies, plans and synergies, growth opportunities, and performance at our stores. There are a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the integration of the recent acquisitions, our ability to execute on our strategic plan or to realize benefits from the strategic plan, the impact and duration of conflicts in oil-producing regions and related governmental actions, as well as other risks, uncertainties, and factors and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as followed with the FCC and available on our website. Any forward-looking statements made during this call can reflect our current views as of today with respect to future events, and Casey's disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures referenced in this call, as well as a detailed breakdown of the operating expense increase for the quarter, can be found on our website at www.casey.com under the Investor Relations link. With that said, I would now like to turn the call over to Darren to discuss our first quarter results. Darren?

Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. Before we dive into our strong first quarter performance, I'd like to congratulate the entire Casey's team for executing an outstanding summer plan at a high level and delivering a terrific guest experience across Casey's country. I'd also like to highlight the positive impact Casey's is making on our communities. As students head back to school, Casey's is excited to see the impact of our Cash for Classrooms grants come to life. Last year, we awarded $900,000 to schools throughout our communities. Thanks to the generosity of our guests and team members, along with the support from our supplier partner, Coca-Cola, this August campaign raised over $1 million, fueling our continued commitment to supporting education and enriching the lives of children across our footprint. Now let's discuss the results from the quarter. Diluted EPS finished at $5.77 per share, a 19% increase from the prior year. The company generated $215 million in net income, and $414 million in EBITDA, both of which are an increase of 20% from the prior year. Inside the SOAR, we saw positive traffic growth as guests responded well to our innovation and promotional activity in the prepared food and dispensed beverage category. We also experienced margin expansion driven primarily by the grocery and general merchandise category. Our fuel team is doing an excellent job balancing fuel volume and margin, achieving positive same-store gallons and margins above $0.40 per gallon. As we worked through the last year of our three-year strategic plan, I'm extremely confident in our team's ability to execute at a high level and continue to grow the business. I would now like to go over the results and share some of the details in each of the categories. Inside same-store sales were up 4.3% for the first quarter, or 6.7% on a two-year stack basis, with an average margin of 41.9%. Same-store prepared food and dispensed beverage led the way, at sales were up 5.6%, or 10.2% on a two-year stack basis, with an average margin of 58%. Whole pies and bakery performed well in the quarter. Margin was down approximately 30 basis points from the prior year, as the lower margin from the recently acquired Sefco stores was partially offset by modest retail price adjustments, primarily in bakery, and cost of goods management. Same-store grocery and general merchandise sales were up 3.8% or 5.4% on a two-year stack basis with an average margin of 35.9%, an increase of approximately 50 basis points from the prior year, primarily due to favorable next shift to higher margin items such as energy drinks and nicotine alternatives within their categories. Turning to fuel, same-store gallons sold were up 1.7% with a fuel margin of $0.41 per gallon. According to Opus fuel gallon sold data, the mid-continent region saw an approximate 3% decline this quarter, suggesting we continue to grow market share. The fuel team is successfully balancing volume and margin, and the performance shows it. We continue to be judicious managing operating expense with an increase of 3% on a same-store excluding credit card fee basis. dropping a 0.7% increase in the prior year. Our focus on simplifying the operations once again resulted in reduced training and overtime hours, yielding an overall decrease of 1%. I would now like to turn the call over to Steve to discuss the financial results from the first quarter. Steve?