AutoZone (NYSE: AZO) faces headwinds in 2024, but its FQ1 2025/CQ3 2024 results prove why it is a high-caliber buy-and-hold stock. The company sustains growth in difficult times, maintains margin, provides robust cash flow, and pays its shareholders to own it. It delivers a steadily increasing value, which is clearly seen in the stock’s price. This stock has trended steadily higher for decades. The trend went into overdrive in 2020 when growth accelerated, and the market is breaking out to new highs now that the outlook for 2025 has cleared.
AutoZone stock doesn’t pay dividends but doesn’t have to, repurchasing shares aggressively with no signs of stopping. The buybacks in FQ1 amounted to $505 million in returned capital, helping to reduce the total count by 4.7% year-over-year, and there is ample funding left under the current authorization. The current authorization is worth another $1.7 billion, or about 3% of the market cap, and sufficient for another three financial quarters of buybacks at the current pace. The board will likely authorize additional funding by then.
