Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (NYSE:AAP) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

David Bellinger: Got it. Okay. And then the follow-up on the share repurchases being paused, I think that’s around 7% of your market cap based on what you did in this year. So what would you need to see to buy back stock again? Are there any specific metrics you need to hit? And is there a certain point in the year where you could go and step back into the market and beginning repurchases again?

Jeff Shepherd: Yeah, for sure. We – first of all, I think it’s important to point out that we think the share repurchase to be temporary. We’re going to be executing our capital allocation priorities, investing in the business, both CapEx and working capital that we talked about. And we’re still really excited about the fact that we’re paying a very strong dividend. Having said that, we’ll be monitoring is our free cash flow. We don’t have any plans to take out debt to repurchase shares. And so we’re going to be laser focused on improving that free cash flow as we navigate through the year. But we’re going to prioritize making sure we have the very best availability. And so as we work through that, if that improves top line higher than expectations and improve the free cash flow, we’ll be back in the market. It’s just a matter of making sure we have the free cash flow to support it.

David Bellinger: Great. Thank you, both.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Zach Fadem from Wells Fargo. Zach, your line is open. Please go ahead. Zach

Zach Fadem: Hi, good morning and thank you. So Tom, could you talk us through your take on the industry growth rate in 2023? How that breaks down between DIY versus Pro? And then how you bridge the gap both for your DIY and do-it-for-me expectations relative to the industry growth rate?

Tom Greco: Sure. Well, first of all, we expect kind of 4-ish for the industry on a full year basis. That’s kind of our current projection. We expect Pro to outperform DIY. Now that’s an interesting dynamic this year. Obviously, you’ve got a lot of factors at plays back with some macroeconomic uncertainty and pressure on the low to middle income consumer, which tends to shift business to DIY. So as we sit here today with 10 months to go, those are the numbers that we see. We believe we can continue to drive growth in DIY and in particular, benefiting from some of the digital investments we’ve been making over time to grow share in DIY. And as we said a couple of times here, the Pro business to ramp up through the year and get to the industry growth rate or above by – as we get into the back half.

Zach Fadem: Got it. And when you think about your historical non-GAAP margin goal of 10.5 to 12.5, can you walk through what that would equate to on a GAAP basis? And then for 2023, could you talk about your expectations for the LIFO benefit and also the transformation costs that you’re embedding in the outlook today?

Jeff Shepherd: Yeah, sure. I mean it’s a little bit of apples and oranges as you know, but as Tom mentioned earlier, the initiatives really don’t change. And they don’t change our ability to expand margins here in the short term and even longer term, whether we’re on a GAAP or non-GAAP. Thinking about the sort of reconciliation, if you will, really there is three primary components. You’ve got your – our transformation costs, restructuring costs. We have the amortization associated with GPI and the LIFO. First two are a little bit easier. The transformation and restructuring as we move into 2023, we think that going to be roughly the same in terms of what we saw in 2022 from a cost standpoint. Amortization is – it’s straight line.