O'Reilly Automotive Inc (ORLY) 2017 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the O'Reilly Automotive Inc. Fourth Quarter and Full Year Earnings Conference Call. My name is Jason, and I will be your operator. (Operator Instructions) Also please note, this conference is being recorded.

歡迎來到 O'Reilly Automotive Inc.第四季及全年財報電話會議。我叫傑森，我將是你的接線生。（操作說明）另請注意，本次會議正在錄音。

I will now turn the call over to Mr. Tom McFall. You may begin, sir.

現在我將把電話交給湯姆·麥克福爾先生。先生，您可以開始了。

Thank you, Jason. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. During today's conference call, we will discuss our fourth quarter 2017 results and our outlook for the first quarter and full year of 2018. After our prepared comments, we will host a question-and-answer period.

謝謝你，傑森。各位早安，感謝各位的參與。在今天的電話會議上，我們將討論我們 2017 年第四季的業績以及我們對 2018 年第一季和全年的展望。在我們發表完準備好的評論後，我們將安排問答環節。

Before we begin this morning, I'd like to remind everyone that our comments today contain forward-looking statements, and we intend to be covered by and we claim the protection under the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as estimate, may, could, will, believe, expect, would, consider, should, anticipate, project, plan, intend or similar words.

在今天早上開始之前，我想提醒大家，我們今天的發言包含前瞻性陳述，我們打算受到 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》中關於前瞻性陳述的安全港條款的保護，並聲稱受到該條款的保護。你可以透過諸如估計、可能、可以、將、相信、預期、會、考慮、應該、預計、預測、計劃、打算或類似詞語等前瞻性詞語來識別這些陳述。

The company's actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to several important factors described in the company's latest annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, and other recent SEC filings. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call.

由於本公司截至 2016 年 12 月 31 日止年度的最新 10-K 表格年度報告以及其他近期提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中所述的幾個重要因素，本公司的實際業績可能與任何前瞻性聲明有重大差異。本公司不承擔更新本次電話會議中任何前瞻性陳述的義務。

At this time, I'd like to introduce Greg Henslee.

在此，我謹向大家介紹格雷格‧亨斯利。

Thanks, Tom. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the O'Reilly Auto Parts fourth quarter conference call. Participating on the call with me this morning are our copresidents, Greg Johnson and Jeff Shaw; as well as Thomas McFall, our Chief Financial Officer. David O'Reilly, our Executive Chairman, is also present.

謝謝你，湯姆。各位早安，歡迎參加歐萊利汽車配件公司第四季電話會議。今天早上和我一起參加電話會議的有我們的聯合總裁格雷格·約翰遜和傑夫·肖，以及我們的首席財務官托馬斯·麥克福爾。我們的執行主席大衛·奧萊利也出席了會議。

Hopefully, everyone had a chance to read both our fourth quarter earnings release and our leadership succession plan press release. I'll briefly discuss our fourth quarter results and our succession plan before turning the call over to Greg, Jeff and Tom.

希望大家都有機會閱讀我們的第四季財報和領導層繼任計畫新聞稿。我將簡要介紹我們第四季度的業績和繼任計劃，然後將電話會議交給 Greg、Jeff 和 Tom。

I'd like to start the call today by thanking all of our team members for their hard work and dedication to our company. 2017 was a challenging environment for our industry. However, through your commitment to providing outstanding customer service and living the O'Reilly culture, we were able to generate our 25th consecutive year of comparable store sales growth, record revenue and operating income every year since becoming a public company in 1993.

今天，我首先要感謝我們所有團隊成員為公司付出的辛勤努力和奉獻精神。2017年對我們這個產業來說是一個充滿挑戰的一年。然而，正是由於你們致力於提供卓越的客戶服務並實踐 O'Reilly 文化，我們才能連續 25 年實現同店銷售增長，自 1993 年成為上市公司以來，每年都創下收入和營業利潤的新紀錄。

Our comparable store sales for the fourth quarter grew 1.3%, which was in line with our guidance expectations. As we discussed on last quarter's call, we faced very difficult comparisons to last December due to favorable weather across the country in December of 2016 and headwinds from a shift in the calendar.

第四季同店銷售額成長1.3%，符合我們的預期。正如我們在上個季度電話會議上討論的那樣，由於 2016 年 12 月全國各地天氣良好以及日曆變化帶來的不利影響，我們面臨著與去年 12 月非常艱難的比較。

This calendar headwind resulted from an additional Sunday, our lowest volume day in 2017's fourth quarter when compared to 2016, as well as the timing of the Christmas holiday, which fell on Monday this year versus Sunday last year. These calendar shifts were a combined headwind of approximately 70 basis points to our comparable store sales growth for the quarter.

日曆上的不利因素是由於多了一個星期日，而星期日是 2017 年第四季度我們交易量最低的一天（與 2016 年相比），以及聖誕節假期的時間安排（今年是星期一，而去年是星期日）。這些日曆變化對我們本季的同店銷售成長造成了約 70 個基點的不利影響。

When we look at our sales progression during the quarter versus our expectations, we got off to a solid start, but hit some weather-related softness mid-November to mid-December and finished up strong with the onset of harsh winter weather in the last half of December. In absolute terms, October and November were solid comparable store sales growth months and December being negative for the reasons I mentioned.

當我們審視本季的銷售進度與預期時，我們開局良好，但在 11 月中旬至 12 月中旬受到天氣影響而有所疲軟，並在 12 月下半月嚴寒冬季到來後強勁收官。從絕對值來看，10 月和 11 月的同店銷售額實現了穩健增長，而 12 月由於我提到的原因出現了負增長。

Greg will give some additional color on our fourth quarter comparable store sales growth and our expectations for 2018. Our earnings per share for the quarter of $3.52 benefited significantly from 2 tax-related items. These were $0.15 benefit from the new stock option accounting requirements and $0.62 related to adjusting our deferred tax liabilities in conjunction with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Tom will discuss these impacts to the quarter and our outlook for next year in more detail in a few moments.

Greg 將進一步介紹我們第四季同店銷售成長以及我們對 2018 年的預期。本季每股收益為 3.52 美元，主要得益於兩項與稅收相關的項目。這些收益包括因新的股票選擇權會計要求而獲得的 0.15 美元收益，以及因根據 2017 年《減稅與就業法案》調整遞延所得稅負債而獲得的 0.62 美元收益。稍後，湯姆將更詳細地討論這些因素對本季的影響以及我們對明年的展望。

Excluding these tax impacts, our earnings per share for the quarter was $2.75, which was at the top end of our guidance range. Again, Greg and Tom will be covering the details of our fourth quarter performance and our outlook for this year in a moment.

剔除這些稅收影響，我們本季的每股收益為 2.75 美元，處於我們預期範圍的上限。稍後，Greg 和 Tom 將再次詳細介紹我們第四季的業績以及今年的展望。

As was disclosed on our 2 press releases last night, after 33 years of serving in many different roles in our company, I plan to take on yet another new role. Succession planning has always been an important and methodical process at our company and over the period from now until our annual shareholder meeting on May 8, we will transition the day-to-day operations of the company to Greg Johnson and Jeff Shaw. As you know, they assume the roles of copresident a year ago. This will allow me a little more free time for my personal life, yet allow me to continue my participation in the direction and management of our company.

正如我們昨晚發布的兩份新聞稿中所披露的那樣，在公司擔任過許多不同職位 33 年後，我計劃再擔任一個新的職位。繼任計畫一直是我們公司重要且有條不紊的工作。從現在到 5 月 8 日的年度股東大會期間，我們將把公司的日常營運過渡到 Greg Johnson 和 Jeff Shaw 的管理下。如你所知，他們一年前就擔任了聯合主席一職。這將使我有更多的時間享受個人生活，同時也能讓我繼續參與公司的方向和管理。

Subject to our shareholders' meeting -- subject to our shareholders electing me to the board in May, our board has asked that I assume the role of Executive Vice Chairman and Greg Johnson will be promoted to Chief Executive Officer and Co-President; and Jeff Shaw will be promoted to Chief Operating Officer and Co-President. I will continue to be highly involved in the operations of the business as will David O'Reilly, who will continue as our Executive Chairman.

鑑於股東大會的決議——鑑於股東們在五月選舉我進入董事會——董事會已要求我擔任執行副董事長一職，格雷格·約翰遜將晉升為首席執行官兼聯席總裁；傑夫·肖將晉升為首席運營官兼聯席總裁。我將繼續深度參與公司的運營，David O'Reilly 也將繼續擔任我們的執行主席。

For those of you who know our company's history, this transition is very similar to 2005 when Ted Wise and I were promoted from copresidents to COO and Co-President and CEO and Co-President, respectively, and took over the day-to-day operations from the David. Greg and Jeff are both extremely talented and experienced individuals who have the full support of our team and our board and I have complete confidence they will continue our company's long-term track record of success.

對於了解我們公司歷史的人來說，這次過渡與 2005 年非常相似，當時 Ted Wise 和我分別從聯席總裁晉升為首席營運長兼聯席總裁和首席執行官兼聯席總裁，並從 David 手中接管了日常運營。Greg 和 Jeff 都是非常有才華且經驗豐富的人，他們得到了我們團隊和董事會的全力支持，我完全相信他們會延續我們公司長期以來的成功記錄。

Before I finish up my prepared comments, I would like to again thank our team for continuing to provide industry-leading service to our customers every day and growing our market share during this difficult past year. I'm extremely proud of all of you and I'm confident 2018 will be an outstanding year for our company.

在我結束準備好的演講之前，我想再次感謝我們的團隊，感謝他們在過去一年艱難的日子裡，每天都繼續為客戶提供行業領先的服務，並不斷擴大我們的市場份額。我為你們所有人感到無比自豪，我相信2018年對我們公司來說將是輝煌的一年。

I'll now turn the call over to Greg Johnson.

現在我將把電話交給格雷格·約翰遜。

Thanks, Greg, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin my comments today by thanking our team for their deep commitment to outstanding customer service and continuing to build our market share through a tough environment.

謝謝你，格雷格，大家早安。今天，我首先要感謝我們的團隊，感謝他們對卓越客戶服務的堅定承諾，以及在艱難的市場環境下不斷擴大市場份額的努力。

By always putting the customer first, we're well positioned to sustain profitable growth in our business. Now I'd like to provide some additional color on our fourth quarter comparable store sales results and outline our guidance for 2018.

始終將客戶放在第一位，使我們能夠保持業務的獲利成長。現在我想就我們第四季的同店銷售業績做一些補充說明，並概述我們對 2018 年的展望。

For the fourth quarter, our comparable store sales results were driven by an increase in average ticket offset in part by pressure on ticket counts on the DIY side of the business. The Professional business outperformed the DIY business during the quarter. The increase in average ticket continues the long-term trend of increasing parts complexity, although we did see some inflation on same SKU pricing, primarily seasonal items during the fourth quarter, which if it continues, will lend additional support to our top line growth moving forward.

第四季度，我們的同店銷售業績主要得益於平均客單價的成長，但部分被DIY業務客單價下降的壓力所抵銷。本季專業業務的表現優於 DIY 業務。平均客單價的上漲延續了零件複雜性不斷增加的長期趨勢，儘管我們在第四季度確實看到一些相同 SKU 的價格上漲，主要是季節性商品，如果這種情況持續下去，將為我們未來的營收成長提供額外的支持。

On a category basis, we saw strength in winter-related categories across most of the country, which was partially offset by extremely tough comparisons to 2016 for winter-related categories on the West Coast, which did not see the same benefits last year. For the first quarter of 2018 and the full year, we're establishing comparable store sales guidance at 2% to 4%. The key assumptions in developing our guidance are total employment will remain strong and support a modest improvement in miles driven.

從類別來看，全國大部分地區冬季相關類別表現強勁，但西海岸冬季相關類別與 2016 年相比表現極其糟糕，部分抵消了這一增長，因為西海岸去年並沒有獲得同樣的收益。2018 年第一季及全年，我們設定同店銷售成長目標為 2% 至 4%。制定本指引的關鍵假設是：總就業人數將保持強勁，這將支撐行駛里程的適度成長。

However, increasing gas prices could limit the growth of miles driven and put added pressure on lower income consumers. We further assume weather will be normal, pricing in the industry will be rational and inflation will continue to be muted. Our final major assumption is that the pressure in our industry from the depressed new vehicle sales totals during the period from 2008 to 2011 will begin to abate.

然而，汽油價格上漲可能會限制汽車行駛里程的成長，並給低收入消費者帶來更大的壓力。我們進一步假設天氣正常，產業定價合理，通貨膨脹將繼續保持溫和。我們最後一個主要假設是，2008 年至 2011 年期間新車銷售低迷對我們的產業帶來的壓力將開始緩解。

Thus far in the quarter, harsh winter weather across the country has helped support the benefit in our northern markets, although unusual snow and ice in the southern markets have been a headwind to business, since these markets are much less equipped to handle inclement weather and consumers frequently stay home until conditions improve.

本季至今，全國各地嚴酷的冬季天氣對我們北方市場的發展起到了一定的推動作用，但南方市場異常的冰雪天氣對業務發展造成了不利影響，因為這些市場應對惡劣天氣的能力較弱，消費者經常待在家中直到天氣好轉。

In total, we are pleased with our business thus far in the quarter. However, built into our guidance is consideration that our sales volume in Q1 is seasonally weighted to the end of the quarter, where we have our toughest comparisons. In general, the much more inclement weather this winter season has compared to the past 2 mild winters should help drive our business throughout the year.

總體而言，我們對本季迄今的業務表現感到滿意。然而，我們的業績指引中已考慮到，第一季的銷售額受季節性因素影響，主要集中在季度末，而季度末的比較基數最大。總體而言，與過去兩個暖冬相比，今年冬季更惡劣的天氣應該有助於推動我們全年的業務發展。

For the quarter, our gross margin of 52.9% was within our expectations and our full year gross margin of 52.6% was in the middle of our updated full year guidance of 52.5% to 52.7%. For 2018, we're establishing our full year guidance at 52.5% to 53% of sales. The increased expectations are attributable to better leverage on fixed cost for more robust sales, modest improvement in merchandise margin and a slightly lower LIFO charge of $18 million versus $22 million in 2017, partially offset by pressure to increase transportation cost.

本季毛利率為 52.9%，符合預期；全年毛利率為 52.6%，處於我們更新後的全年指引目標 52.5% 至 52.7% 的中間值。2018 年，我們全年的業績預期為銷售額的 52.5% 至 53%。預期增加的原因在於：更好地利用固定成本實現更強勁的銷售，商品毛利率略有提高，以及後進先出費用略有下降（2017 年為 2200 萬美元，而 2017 年為 1800 萬美元），但部分被運輸成本上漲的壓力所抵消。

We expect our 2018 LIFO charge will be front-loaded in the first 2 quarters of the year based on current vendor negotiations with cost increases most likely offsetting the negotiated price decreases in the back half of the year.

根據目前的供應商談判情況，我們預計 2018 年的後進先出法費用將集中在今年的前兩個季度，而下半年的成本增加很可能會抵消談判達成的價格下降。

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 will dramatically reduce our future tax expense. We expect the savings to be approximately $215 million in 2018, and we feel it's appropriate to take a portion of these savings and allocate it back to the business with a focus on continuing to improve the levels of service we offer our customers.

2017 年的《減稅與就業法案》將大幅降低我們未來的稅收支出。我們預計 2018 年將節省約 2.15 億美元，我們認為應該將其中一部分節省下來的資金重新分配給業務，重點是繼續提高我們為客戶提供的服務水準。

Our focus is to further enhance the levels of customer service we offer by accelerating enhancements to our omnichannel efforts and to continue to build on our industry-leading customer service.

我們的重點是透過加快全通路工作的改進，進一步提高我們提供的客戶服務水平，並繼續鞏固我們行業領先的客戶服務。

The costs of this investment to represents a 70 basis point headwind to our SG&A and an incremental $30 million of capital expenditures.

這項投資的成本將對我們的銷售、一般及行政費用造成 70 個基點的不利影響，並增加 3,000 萬美元的資本支出。

Jeff will give further details in the improvements of our in-store service levels, but I'd like to take a minute to discuss our omnichannel efforts.

Jeff 將會詳細介紹我們店內服務水準的改善情況，但我想花一分鐘時間討論我們的全通路舉措。

Regardless of how our customers begin their interaction with us, whether it's in-store, online or over the phone and complete their transactions whether in-store, at-home delivery or with us delivering the order at their shop, we want to provide a seamless shopping experience that engages the customer and delivers a superior customer experience.

無論我們的客戶以何種方式開始與我們互動，無論是在實體店、網上還是通過電話，以及完成交易的方式，無論是在實體店、送貨上門還是我們把訂單送到他們的店鋪，我們都希望提供無縫的購物體驗，吸引客戶並提供卓越的客戶體驗。

During 2018, we will accelerate our investment in our electronic portals, OReillyauto.com, for our DIY customers and First Call Online for our professional customers. Our projects focus on improving the usability, content, search functionality and general touch and feel of these portals to ensure we're exceeding our customer expectations.

2018 年，我們將加速對電子入口網站 OReillyauto.com（針對 DIY 客戶）和 First Call Online（專業客戶）的投資。我們的專案重點在於改善這些入口網站的可用性、內容、搜尋功能以及整體體驗，以確保我們超越客戶的期望。

We will also be focused on better using the data we collect to increase the speed of customer interactions and transactions, improve the smoothness of transactions between the different channels and use past buying patterns to better anticipate our customers' needs. Without going into the details of these specific projects, I do want to say that we're excited about our enhancements and we'll be able to achieve this year -- that we'll be able to achieve this year and the foundation we'll put in place for improvements in the dynamic -- in this dynamic part of our business.

我們還將專注於更好地利用我們收集的數據來提高客戶互動和交易的速度，提高不同管道之間交易的流暢性，並利用過去的購買模式來更好地預測客戶的需求。我不想深入探討這些具體項目的細節，但我確實想說，我們對這些改進感到興奮，並且我們今年將能夠實現——我們今年將能夠實現，並且我們將為改進我們業務中這個充滿活力的部分奠定基礎。

With the additional spend on operating expenses for these investments and the omnichannel and service levels we provide to our customers, we're setting our 2018 full year operating profit guidance at 18.5% to 19%.

考慮到這些投資帶來的額外營運支出，以及我們為客戶提供的全通路和服務水平，我們將 2018 年全年營業利潤預期設定為 18.5% 至 19%。

For the first quarter, we are setting our earnings per share guidance at $3.55 to $3.65. For the full year, our guidance is $15.10 to $15.20. Our full year guidance includes an estimate for the tax benefit for the new option accounting adopted in 2017, and the impact of shares repurchased through this call, but does not include any additional share repurchases.

第一季度，我們預計每股收益為 3.55 美元至 3.65 美元。全年預期為每股 15.10 美元至 15.20 美元。我們的全年業績指引包括 2017 年採用的新選擇會計制度的稅收優惠的估計，以及透過此選擇權回購股票的影響，但不包括任何額外的股票回購。

Before I turn the call over to Jeff, I'd like to thank our team for their hard work in 2017. I look forward to serving as the company's Chief Executive Officer, and I'm excited about the potential for our performance in 2018 and beyond.

在將電話交給傑夫之前，我想感謝我們的團隊在 2017 年的辛勤工作。我期待擔任公司首席執行官，並對公司在 2018 年及以後的業績潛力感到興奮。

I'll now turn the call over to Jeff Shaw. Jeff?

現在我將把電話交給傑夫·肖。傑夫？

Thanks, Greg, and good morning, everyone. To begin today, I'd also like to thank our team for their tireless commitment to providing outstanding customer service. Your dedication to our valued customers has allowed us to strengthen existing relationships and to build new ones. We run our business to develop long-term relationships with our customers who expect high service levels regardless of the sales environment. And as a result, we have a relatively high fixed cost model, which has supported our market share growth year-after-year.

謝謝你，格雷格，大家早安。首先，我也要感謝我們的團隊，感謝他們為提供卓越的客戶服務所做的不懈努力。您對我們尊貴客戶的盡心盡責，使我們能夠加強現有關係並建立新的關係。我們秉持著與客戶建立長期合作關係的經營理念，致力於滿足客戶無論在何種銷售環境下都期望獲得高水準服務的需求。因此，我們採用了相對較高的固定成本模式，這支撐了我們市場份額的逐年增長。

With our business model and new store growth rate, our leverage point for SG&A is in the comparable store sales range of 2.5% to 3%. Comparable store sales of 1.3% for the quarter and 1.4% for the year is well below our historic and expected future growth rates.

憑藉我們的商業模式和新店成長率，我們的銷售、一般及行政費用槓桿點在同店銷售額的 2.5% 至 3% 範圍內。本季同店銷售額成長1.3%，全年成長1.4%，遠低於我們歷史成長率及預期未來成長率。

We tightly manage our expenses in all sales environments, but at these sales levels, we expect to experience de-leverage on our SG&A as we will not make short-term dramatic cuts in our SG&A, since that would significantly impact our service levels and damage our long-term customer relationships.

我們在所有銷售環境下都嚴格控制支出，但在目前的銷售水平下，我們預計銷售、一般及行政費用將出現去槓桿化，因為我們不會在短期內大幅削減銷售、一般及行政費用，因為這將嚴重影響我們的服務水平並損害我們與客戶的長期關係。

As a result, we experienced SG&A deleverage of 87 and 66 basis points for the quarter and year, respectively. When we look at total increase in average SG&A spend per store, we were up 1.2% for the year, which was below our beginning of the year guidance and reflects our efforts to prudently manage expenses lower during slower sales periods.

因此，本季和本年度的銷售、一般及行政費用槓桿率分別下降了 87 個基點和 66 個基點。從每家店的平均銷售、一般及行政費用總增長來看，我們全年增長了 1.2%，低於年初的預期，這反映了我們在銷售淡季謹慎控制支出的努力。

Looking closer at our full year SG&A spend, we were below expectations on payroll, incentive compensation and professional services and fees, offset in part by rising benefit cost, utilities and vehicle cost.

仔細分析我們全年的銷售、一般及行政費用支出，發現我們在工資、激勵性薪酬和專業服務及費用方面低於預期，但部分被不斷上漲的福利成本、水電費和車輛成本所抵消。

As Greg mentioned earlier, we're going to take a portion of our tax savings and allocate it to increased operating expenses to further enhance our best-in-class customer service. This investment, combined with normalization of incentive compensation, will result in 2018 SG&A per store increasing in the range of 3% to 3.5%. This additional spend is focused in 3 main areas: Omnichannel, which Greg already discussed; enhanced benefits and wages at the store level; and the in-store technology to improve the efficiency of our store teams.

正如格雷格之前提到的，我們將把部分稅收節省用於增加營運支出，以進一步提升我們一流的客戶服務。這項投資，加上激勵性薪酬的正常化，將導致 2018 年每家門市的銷售、一般及行政費用增加 3% 至 3.5%。這項額外支出主要集中在三個方面：全通路（Greg 已經討論過）；提高門市層面的福利和工資；以及提高門市團隊效率的店內技術。

The key driver of our in-store customer service levels is the knowledge of our professional parts people. As we continue to experience wage pressure, driven by the waterfall effect and increasing minimum wages and the extremely labor tight market, we absolutely must be able to attract and retain team members who have automotive knowledge and a willingness to live the O'Reilly culture.

我們店內客戶服務水準的關鍵驅動因素是我們專業零件人員的知識水準。由於瀑布效應、最低工資上漲以及勞動力市場極度緊張，我們持續面臨工資壓力，因此我們必須能夠吸引和留住具備汽車知識並願意融入 O'Reilly 文化的團隊成員。

We must also ensure our parts professionals continue to enhance their knowledge base and are as efficient as possible. We have several significant projects directly aimed at accomplishing this. We don't want to discuss these upcoming enhancements in detail, but we're very confident they will generate a solid return on the capital we invest.

我們還必須確保我們的零件專業人員持續提高知識水平，並盡可能提高工作效率。我們有多個旨在直接實現這一目標的重要項目。我們不想詳細討論這些即將推出的改進措施，但我們非常有信心它們將為我們投入的資本帶來豐厚的回報。

On the expansion front, we had a busy year. We opened 190 new stores, converted the 48 Bond stores and expanded our Greensboro DC from 5 -- 300,000 to 500,000 square feet to support our continued growth.

在業務拓展方面，我們度過了忙碌的一年。為了支持我們持續成長，我們開設了 190 家新店，改造了 48 家 Bond 門市，並將格林斯伯勒配送中心從 5 平方英尺（30 萬平方英尺）擴大到 50 萬平方英尺。

For the year, capital expenditures came in at $466 million, which was below our guidance due to a higher mix of lease stores, delays in some projects and generally just tightening our belt during a soft year. For 2018, we're setting our CapEx guidance at $490 million to $520 million. We plan to open 200 new stores during the year and the primary increase in our CapEx is accelerating our IT project spend.

本年度資本支出為 4.66 億美元，低於我們的預期，原因是租賃門市比例較高、一些項目延期以及在淡季期間我們總體上勒緊褲腰帶。2018 年，我們的資本支出預期為 4.9 億美元至 5.2 億美元。我們計劃在一年內開設 200 家新店，資本支出增加的主要方法是加快 IT 專案支出。

I'd like to conclude my comments today by, again, thanking our team for their continued dedication to providing the best customer service in our industry. Our teams have responded to the market conditions we faced throughout 2017 by working that much harder to take care of our customers and that relentless commitment is the key ingredient as we move forward to continue to take market share.

今天，我謹以再次感謝我們的團隊一直以來致力於提供業內最佳客戶服務來結束我的演講。面對 2017 年的市場環境，我們的團隊更加努力地為客戶服務，而這種堅持不懈的承諾是我們繼續擴大市場份額的關鍵因素。

Now I'll turn the call over to Tom.

現在我把電話交給湯姆。

Thanks, Jeff. Now I'll take a closer look at our quarterly results and our guidance for 2018. For the quarter, sales increased $92 million, comprised of $38 million increase in comp store sales, a $53 million increase in noncomp store sales, a $2 million increase of noncomp nonstore sales and a $1 million decrease from closed stores.

謝謝你，傑夫。現在我將仔細看看我們的季度業績和2018年的業績展望。本季銷售額成長 9,200 萬美元，同店銷售額成長 3,800 萬美元，非同店銷售額成長 5,300 萬美元，非同店非門市銷售額成長 200 萬美元，以及因門市關閉而減少 100 萬美元。

For 2018, we expect our total revenue to be $9.4 billion to $9.6 billion. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 had a dramatic impact on our fourth quarter earnings and it will continue to have a significant positive impact on our tax rate on a go-forward basis. For the fourth quarter, we recorded a tax benefit of $53 million or $0.62 per share related to the remeasurement of our federal deferred tax liability from a tax rate of 35% down to the new 21% tax rate. This deferred liability relates to timing differences for our historic tax deductions exceeded our deductions recorded for GAAP. These differences reverse over time, but will now reverse at the new lower tax rate.

我們預計 2018 年的總收入將達到 94 億美元至 96 億美元。2017 年的《減稅與就業法案》對我們第四季的收益產生了巨大影響，並將繼續對我們未來的稅率產生顯著的正面影響。第四季度，我們確認了 5,300 萬美元（每股 0.62 美元）的稅收優惠，這與我們聯邦遞延所得稅負債的稅率從 35% 下調至新的 21% 稅率有關。這項遞延負債與我們歷史稅扣除額的時間差異有關，超過了我們根據公認會計原則記錄的扣除額。這些差異會隨著時間的推移而消失，但現在在新較低的稅率下，這些差異將會消失。

During the quarter, we also recorded a tax benefit of $13 million, $0.15 per share relating to the new accounting for share-based compensation. For the full year, our tax benefit for the new required accounting for share-based compensation was $49 million or $0.50 per share.

本季度，我們也確認了與股份支付新會計準則相關的 1,300 萬美元（每股 0.15 美元）的稅收優惠。全年來看，由於新的股份支付會計準則要求，我們獲得了 4,900 萬美元的稅收優惠，即每股 0.50 美元。

For 2018, we expect our tax rate to be approximately 23% to 24% of pretax income. The new lower rate is a result of lower -- the lower federal tax rate. In comparison to 2017, we expect our EPS to be affected by a $0.59 headwind from the one-time reduction of our deferred tax liabilities in the fourth quarter of 2017; a $2.50 increase from the new lower federal tax rate; and a $0.30 headwind from a tax deduction for share-based compensation with the lower benefit driven by lower expected gains on exercises of options. We expect the quarterly tax rate will be relatively consistent, however, the quarter-to-quarter differences in the tax benefit from share-based compensation will create fluctuations on our quarterly tax rate as a percent of pretax income.

2018 年，我們預計稅率約為稅前收入的 23% 至 24%。新的較低稅率是由於聯邦稅率降低。與 2017 年相比，我們預計每股收益將受到以下不利影響：2017 年第四季度遞延所得稅負債一次性減少 0.59 美元；新的聯邦稅率降低 2.50 美元；以及基於股份的薪酬稅收抵扣減少 0.30 美元，而期權行使的預期收益降低導致收益減少。我們預期季度稅率將相對穩定，但是，由於股權激勵帶來的稅收優惠存在季度間的差異，這將導致我們季度稅率佔稅前收入的百分比出現波動。

Now we'll move on to free cash flow and the components that drove our results for the year and our expectations for 2018. Free cash flow for 2017 was $889 million, which was a decrease of $89 million from the prior year. This decrease was due to a lower decrease in net inventory, offset in part by lower capital expenditures. In 2018, we expect free cash flow to be in the range of $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion, with the increase driven by higher pretax income and lower cash taxes, offset in part by higher CapEx. Inventory per store at the end of the quarter was $600,000, which was a 4.2% increase from the end of 2016. Our ongoing goal is to ensure we grow per store inventory at the lower rate than the comparable store sales we generate. And unfortunately, we didn't achieve that goal this year as soft sales, especially in seasonal categories, resulted in a higher a year-end inventory value than anticipated.

現在我們將討論自由現金流以及推動我們今年業績的各項因素，以及我們對 2018 年的預期。2017 年自由現金流為 8.89 億美元，比前一年減少了 8,900 萬美元。這一下降是由於淨庫存下降幅度較小，但部分被資本支出減少所抵銷。2018 年，我們預計自由現金流將在 11 億美元至 12 億美元之間，成長主要得益於稅前收入增加和現金稅收減少，但部分被更高的資本支出所抵消。本季末每家門市的庫存為 60 萬美元，比 2016 年底成長了 4.2%。我們始終致力於確保每家店的庫存成長速度低於同店銷售額的成長速度。遺憾的是，由於銷售疲軟，尤其是季節性商品的銷售疲軟，導致年末庫存價值高於預期，我們今年未能實現這一目標。

We expect this cycle through this excess inventory in 2018, and we anticipate we'll grow our per store inventory in the range of 1% to 2% this year. Our AP-to-inventory ratio at the end of the quarter was 106%, which was where we ended 2016. We anticipate a slight improvement to 107% at the end of 2018, which will be driven by the higher level of sales.

我們預計這一週期將在 2018 年結束，以應對庫存過剩問題，我們預計今年每家門市的庫存將增加 1% 至 2%。本季末，我們的應付帳款與庫存比率為 106%，與 2016 年末的水準相同。我們預計到 2018 年底，這一比例將略微提高至 107%，這主要得益於更高的銷售額。

Moving on to debt. We finished the fourth quarter with an adjusted debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 2.12x, as compared to our ratio of 1.63x at the end of 2016. The increase in our leverage ratio reflects the $750 million 10-year bonds we issued in August and incremental borrowings on our $1.2 billion unsecured revolving credit facility. Our increased borrowings moved us into our targeted range of 2x to 2.25x.

接下來談談債務問題。在第四季末，我們調整後的負債與 EBITDA 比率為 2.12 倍，而 2016 年底比率為 1.63 倍。我們的槓桿率上升反映了我們在 8 月發行的 7.5 億美元 10 年期債券以及我們 12 億美元無擔保循環信貸額度的新增借款。我們增加的借款使我們達到了 2 倍至 2.25 倍的目標範圍。

We continue to execute our share repurchase program and for 2017, we repurchased 9.3 million shares at an average price of $233.57 for a total investment of $2.2 billion.

我們繼續執行股票回購計劃，2017 年，我們以平均每股 233.57 美元的價格回購了 930 萬股股票，總投資額為 22 億美元。

Subsequent to the end of the year through the date of our press release, we repurchased 0.5 million shares at an average price of $261.72. We remain very confident that the average repurchase price is supported by expected discounted future cash flows of our business, and we continue to view our buyback program as an effective means of returning excess capital to our shareholders.

從年底到我們發布新聞稿之日，我們以平均每股 261.72 美元的價格回購了 50 萬股股票。我們仍然非常有信心，平均回購價格能夠得到我們業務預期未來現金流折現的支持，我們繼續將回購​​計畫視為向股東返還多餘資本的有效手段。

Finally, before I open up our call for questions, I'd like to thank the O'Reilly team for their dedication to the company and our customers.

最後，在正式開始提問環節之前，我要感謝 O'Reilly 團隊對公司和客戶的奉獻精神。

This concludes our prepared comments. And at this time, I'd like to ask, Jason, the operator, to return to the line and we'll be happy to answer your questions.

我們的發言到此結束。此時，我想請接線員傑森回到電話線上，我們將很樂意回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Scot Ciccarelli from RBC Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的 Scot Ciccarelli。

First question is, can you help quantify what kind of impact you're expecting from the improved car part that you mentioned during the call? Car part meaning, the dropping of car sales we had, obviously, during the downturn.

第一個問題是，您能否量化一下您在通話中提到的改良型汽車零件預計會產生什麼樣的影響？汽車零件的含義，顯然是指經濟衰退期間汽車銷量的下降。

When we look at the numbers, we see that, that pressure is going to abate, quantifying that particular factor amongst all the factors is not something we do, but we feel like that was a pressure last year that will be less of a pressure this year, and obviously, we continue to have the aging of the vehicle fleet more vehicles in the end of -- or in the older section that continue to drive demand and growth in our industry.

從數據來看，這種壓力將會減輕。我們不會量化所有因素中的這一特定因素，但我們感覺去年的壓力今年會減輕。顯然，車輛老化問題依然存在，車齡較長的車輛（或老舊車輛）持續推動著我們行業的需求和成長。

Okay. And then a question -- the follow-up has to do with the reinvestment amount. So if you kind of go through the numbers, and I'm assuming we're talking about 70 basis points of margin, that's how I think people are interpreting that comment. It's about $65 million, $66 million. Is that all going to wages? Or is there's something else that might be in there? It just seems like a little bit of a high number on the wage front, but maybe there's something else in there.

好的。然後還有一個問題——後續問題與再投資金額有關。所以，如果你仔細分析這些數字，假設我們說的是 70 個基點的利潤率，我認為人們就是這樣解讀那則評論的。大約是6500萬美元，6600萬美元。這些錢都用來支付薪水了嗎？或者裡面可能還有其他東西？工資方面看起來有點高，但也許還有其他原因。

Yes, this is Jeff. I'll take a stab at that one. We feel it's about $65 million and, as I mentioned in the prepared comments, the spend is basically focused in 3 main areas. Wage increases in excess of the historical norms; additional spend on Information Technology; and the enhancements to our team member benefit offering.

是的，這是傑夫。我來試著回答一下。我們認為金額約為 6500 萬美元，正如我在準備好的評論中提到的，支出主要集中在 3 個主要領域。薪資成長超過歷史平均；資訊科技方面的額外支出；以及我們團隊成員福利待遇的提升。

And kind of in that order, Jeff?

傑夫，大概就是照這個順序嗎？

That's not something that we're going to quantify the individual pieces of, Scot.

史考特，我們不會去量化其中的各個組成部分。

Next, we have Matt Fassler from Goldman Sachs.

接下來，我們請到了高盛的馬特法斯勒。

The first question is actually a follow-up of Scot and I guess asking it simply, do you think you would have made this investment to $65 million without tax reform? And presumably you'd started the 2017 -- 2018 planning process prior to the final bill being passed. Were some of these likely to be in the plan or is this really kind of a switch that you flipped when you realized you'd have this windfall and the opportunity to invest some of those dollars?

第一個問題其實是 Scot 議題的後續，我簡單地問一下，如果沒有稅制改革，你認為你會進行 6,500 萬美元的投資嗎？想必您在最終法案通過之前就已經開始了 2017-2018 年的規劃過程。這些投資項目是否原本就在計畫中？還是說，當你意識到自己將獲得一筆意外之財，並有機會投資其中的部分資金時，你突然改變了主意？

Scott, this is Tom. I'll take a shot at this one. When we look at our technology investments, we continue to invest strongly in those over the last 3, 4, 5 years. I think that the tax change has allowed us to accelerate those further. When we look at wage increases, this is the incremental amount in addition to known wage pressures we have. We feel like as the market has tightened and as others have taken action, that we need to be proactive in addressing, especially our low-end store wages, to ensure that we can stay competitive in the market and attract the talent we need in our technical business.

斯科特，這是湯姆。我來試試看。當我們審視我們的技術投資時，我們會發現，在過去的 3 年、4 年、5 年裡，我們一直在大力投資這些領域。我認為稅收政策的改變使我們能夠進一步加快這些進程。當我們考慮薪資成長時，這是在已知的薪資壓力之外的額外成長幅度。我們覺得，隨著市場趨緊，其他企業也採取了行動，我們需要積極主動地解決問題，尤其是低端門市的工資問題，以確保我們能夠在市場上保持競爭力，並吸引我們技術業務所需的人才。

Got you. And then my follow-up relates to weather. I guess there's good-bad weather and then bad-bad weather, depending on, I guess, the offshoot between causing parts failure and then keeping cars off the road. If you think about the weather that we've experienced over the past couple of months, a more normal winter for sure, how do you feel about the potential impact of the current weather backdrop on your business later in the year during the summer months when some of those -- when some of that parts failure comes back to drive the business? Is this the kind of backdrop that should be more helpful to you come midyear or is there less relevance?

抓到你了。接下來，我的後續問題與天氣有關。我想天氣有好壞之分，也有壞到極點的程度，這取決於導致零件故障和車輛停駛之間的因果關係。想想過去幾個月的天氣，這肯定是一個比較正常的冬天，你覺得目前的天氣狀況會對你的企業在今年晚些時候的夏季造成怎樣的潛在影響？因為屆時一些零件的故障可能會再次影響到業務。這種背景資訊在年中對你更有幫助嗎？還是相關性較低？

Yes, Matt, this is Greg Johnson. As you said, there's good-bad weather and bad-bad weather. As I said in my prepared comments, bad weather is better for us typically in northern markets and in the southern markets where they're not quite as prepared typically for the weather. From a -- and then there's a short-term and long-term benefits to bad weather as well. In the fourth quarter, we saw that -- very late in the fourth quarter, we saw some benefits to bad weather because of the cold snaps up north. And we do expect to see benefit, as we get into the spring and summer months, resulting from that as well. That could be the evidence of battery failures when the weather goes hot, turns hot rather, and ride control under car categories from damaged roads, things like that, that we typically experience a few months down the road from the actual winter harsh weather.

是的，馬特，我是格雷格·約翰遜。正如你所說，天氣有好有壞，也有非常糟糕的天氣。正如我在準備好的評論中所說，惡劣天氣通常對我們北方市場和南方市場更有利，因為南方市場通常對惡劣天氣準備不足。從某種意義上來說——而且惡劣天氣也有短期和長期的好處。第四季度，我們看到—在第四季末期，由於北方寒流，惡劣天氣帶來了一些好處。我們預計，隨著春夏季節的到來，這將帶來好處。這可能是天氣變熱時電池故障的證據，也可能是道路損壞導致的車輛行駛控制故障的證據，諸如此類的情況，我們通常會在真正的嚴冬過後幾個月才會遇到。

Next, we have Mike Baker from Deutsche Bank.

接下來，我們請到了德意志銀行的麥克貝克。

I want to follow up on the first quarter comments where you said that the comparisons get more difficult later in the quarter in presumably March. But correct me if I'm wrong, they sort of get a lot easier over the next couple of weeks as just starting right about now we're up against when the tax refunds really fall off the table last year. So could you tell us how you expect that to play out over the next few weeks and how that plays into your guidance?

我想就您在第一季的評論做個後續說明，您當時提到，到了季度末（大概是三月），比​​較會變得更加困難。但如果我錯了請糾正我，接下來的幾週情況會好轉很多，因為從現在開始，我們就要面對去年退稅真正結束的時候了。那麼，您能否告訴我們，您預計未來幾週內情況會如何發展，以及這會如何影響您的指導？

Yes, Mike. I can tell you, as I said in the prepared comments, we're pleased with where we stand thus far in the quarter. And looking forward, as you move later in the quarter, we typically see an uptick based on seasonality, we'll see an uptick in parts because our -- due to seasonality. And you're right, there -- the tax benefit did hit us over the next couple of weeks and we were hopeful that we will see improved sales during that period of time and we remain confident in our guidance of 2% to 4% for the quarter.

是的，麥克。正如我在事先準備好的評論中所說，我對本季迄今為止的成績感到滿意。展望未來，隨著季度的推進，我們通常會看到基於季節性因素的成長，我們會看到部分成長，因為我們的成長——由於季節性因素。你說得對——稅收優惠確實在接下來的幾週內對我們產生了影響，我們希望在此期間銷售額能夠有所改善，我們仍然對本季度 2% 至 4% 的成長預期充滿信心。

So I guess, when you say hopeful, I mean, does that imply that the 2% to 4% assumes a pick up in the next few weeks? And then maybe a little bit of a drop off in March? Is that the right way to think about it?

所以我想說，當你說「充滿希望」的時候，我的意思是，這是否意味著2%到4%的成長預期是基於未來幾週經濟復甦的假設？然後三月可能會略有下降？這種思考方式正確嗎？

This is Tom. What I would tell you is that we build our sales plan on a daily basis throughout the quarter and build our guidance based on overall market assumptions. And when we had our call last year, we obviously were having a slower-than-anticipated beginning of the year and some of that was the impact of the timing of tax refunds. So we've taken all that into account in developing our guidance for the quarter and we're comfortable with our 2% to 4% guidance based on our progression thus far in the quarter.

這是湯姆。我想告訴大家的是，我們每天都會根據整個季度的情況制定銷售計劃，並根據整體市場假設制定業績指引。去年我們進行電話會議時，顯然年初的進展比預期慢，部分原因是退稅時間的影響。因此，我們在製定本季業績指引時已將所有這些因素考慮在內，根據本季度迄今為止的進展情況，我們對 2% 至 4% 的業績指引感到滿意。

This is Greg Henslee. Let me just add one thing. When we talk about the quarter, and the reason we talked about the importance of the end of the quarter and the comparisons is simply because of the seasonality that Greg mentioned, and the fact that our sales typically ramp into the quarter. So while we're pleased with where we are in the quarter, the majority of the quarter is in front of us, and we really didn't take a lot of the potential for the timing of tax refunds and stuff into our guidance, but what we did consider just kind of how we did last year, how we would typically ramp and where we're at in the quarter and, as Greg said, we're comfortable with the guidance we gave recognizing that we're pleased with where we're at to this point in the quarter.

這是格雷格·亨斯利。我再補充一點。當我們談到季度末的重要性以及進行比較的原因時，正如格雷格所提到的，是因為季節性因素，以及我們的銷售額通常會在季度末開始成長。所以，雖然我們對本季度的業績感到滿意，但本季的大部分時間還在後面，我們並沒有把退稅等因素的時間影響納入業績指引，但我們確實考慮了去年的情況、我們通常的業績增長速度以及我們本季度的進展情況。正如格雷格所說，我們對給予的業績指引感到滿意，因為我們對本季目前的業績感到滿意。

And next, we have Steven Forbes from Guggenheim Securities.

接下來，我們請到了古根漢證券的史蒂文‧福布斯。

Maybe just a quick follow-up on the reinvestment. I kind of think about it, if you can touch on why 70 basis points? Why not more, given your margin structure and the likelihood of improving industry backdrop and the share opportunities that exist in certain regions around the country? How do you come up with the 70 basis points?

或許可以簡單跟進一下再投資的情況。我一直在思考這個問題，您能否解釋為什麼是 70 個基點？鑑於貴公司的利潤率結構、行業環境改善的可能性以及全國某些地區存在的市場份額機會，為什麼不增加更多呢？你是如何得出70個基點這個數字的？

This is Tom. I'll answer the question and then turn it over to Jeff. When we look at the likelihood -- when we look at what projects we thought we could accelerate and what the ROI was, that's a more cut and dry item. When we look at what we need to do to be competitive on benefits to retain people and reduce turnover, little more of a cut and dry item. When we look at what we thought the wage pressures were going to be in total based on changes in the market, we did some work and made an estimate. What I'll tell you is that we don't do anything blanket with wages and that's something that Jeff can describe better. Because we're talking about store wages.

這是湯姆。我先回答這個問題，然後把問題交給傑夫。當我們考慮可能性時——當我們考慮哪些項目我們認為可以加速進行以及投資回報率是多少時，這就比較簡單明了。當我們審視為了在福利方面保持競爭力以留住員工並降低人員流動率，我們需要做些什麼時，這其實是一個比較簡單明了的問題。當我們根據市場變化來評估薪資壓力時，我們做了一些工作並做出了估算。我可以告訴你的是，我們在工資方面不會採取一刀切的做法，這一點傑夫應該能解釋得更清楚。因為我們討論的是門市員工薪資。

Really, it would be a store-by-store market-by-market analysis and, obviously, with what's going on in the industry and minimum wages coming up, and things that we're hearing from other retailers about moving wages, we just wanted to be prepared for that and we'll react accordingly by market based on what's going on in the market. As I said in my prepared comments, to make sure that we can and not only attract but retain good solid parts professionals.

實際上，這將需要逐店逐市場進行分析。顯然，考慮到行業現狀、即將出台的最低工資標準，以及我們從其他零售商那裡聽到的有關調整工資的消息，我們只是想做好準備，並根據市場情況做出相應的反應。正如我在準備好的演講稿中所說，要確保我們不僅能夠吸引而且能夠留住優秀的零件專業人才。

And then -- and maybe just a follow-up on that topic, when you say wages, right, is it strictly just rate or is there also potential investment in incremental labor hours? And then just last one, just given the timing of this impact, should we think about the 70 basis points as an annualized impact? Or is the annualized impact greater because of the potential timing of the wage increases?

然後——也許可以就這個話題再追問一下，您說的工資是指工資率，對吧？還是也包括對額外勞動時間的潛在投資？最後，考慮到這次影響的時間，我們是否應該將 70 個基點視為年化影響？或者，由於薪資成長的潛在時間因素，年度影響是否更大？

This is Tom. I'll address the annualization. When we look at the benefit portions, when we roll out benefit changes, it's got an ongoing portion of expense, but it's also got an immediate expense impact to catch up our accruals to these new levels. So we would expect the quarter-to-quarter impact to be pretty similar throughout the year, and the annualization to be similar as we have more start-up costs on these items at the beginning of this year and then wages ramp, it will level out. Yes, on the labor hours, I mean, my comment there would be our philosophy is the same as it's always been. We staff for the appropriate volume of the business and we would continue to do that kind of buy market based on what we'll see our sales volume doing.

這是湯姆。我會討論年化問題。當我們審視福利部分時，當我們推出福利變更時，會產生持續的費用，但同時也會產生直接的費用影響，以使我們的應計款項趕上這些新水平。因此，我們預計全年各季度的影響將非常相似，年度影響也將非常相似，因為今年年初這些項目的啟動成本較高，然後隨著工資上漲，成本將趨於穩定。是的，關於工時，我的意思是，我們的理念和以往一樣。我們根據業務量配備適當的人員，並將繼續根據銷售量的情況在市場上進行採購。

Next, we have Greg Melich from MoffettNathanson.

接下來，我們邀請了來自 MoffettNathanson 的 Greg Melich。

First, Greg, I want to thank you for all your work over the years with us. And Greg and Jeff, congrats.

首先，格雷格，我要感謝你多年來為我們所做的一切。格雷格和傑夫，恭喜你們！

Thank you.

謝謝。

So, I wanted to -- I just had 2 questions. One is on inflation. I think you mentioned that in inflation started in the fourth quarter. Could you quantify how much that was and your guidance for this year and the 2% to 4% comp, how much inflation do you expect? And then I had a follow-up.

所以，我想問──我只有兩個問題。一是通貨膨脹。我想你之前提到過通貨膨脹是從第四季開始的。您能否量化一下具體金額，以及您對今年的業績指引（假設成長率為 2% 至 4%），您預期通貨膨脹率會是多少？然後我還有後續跟進。

This is Tom. Most of the inflation that we saw in the fourth quarter was on seasonal-type items. Our comments in the prepared remarks were that our expectation is that we're going to have yet another year where same SKU pricing doesn't come up. To the extent that we did see some, that would additional tailwind for us.

這是湯姆。第四季我們看到的通膨大多集中在季節性商品上。我們在準備好的演講稿中表示，我們預計今年將不會出現相同 SKU 定價的情況​​。如果我們確實看到了一些這樣的情況，那將對我們有利。

So basically same, SKU is the same and it's just commodity sort of flowing through?

所以基本上是一樣的，SKU 也是一樣，只是一般商品流通而已？

Well we saw some same SKU inflation on seasonal items.

我們發現一些季節性商品的 SKU 價格出現了上漲。

Okay, great. And then the second question was, when you thought about margin investment and ROI from that, it was pretty clear that you went methodically through everything, and I'm curious as to where product investment or gross margin investment flushed out in that equation. Any reason why you didn't look to put some into the product margin or gross margin generally, even as part of a service offering when you look to invest margin?

好的，太好了。第二個問題是，當你考慮到利潤投資和由此產生的投資回報率時，很明顯你對所有事情都進行了系統分析，我很好奇產品投資或毛利率投資在這個等式中是如何體現的。您在考慮投資利潤時，為什麼沒有考慮將部分利潤用於產品利潤率或毛利率，即使是作為服務產品的一部分？

Since this is a plan question -- this is Tom again, I'll answer the question. We feel comfortable with where our pricing is. Obviously, we are very competitive on the street and our business is very technical business. It's not just the price of the goods that determine what the value is to the customer, and we continue to feel like we're priced appropriately for the services we provide. And then, additionally, there's really nothing to gain for us to -- by lowering price. I mean, if we lower our price today on any given category, you can bet our competitors, with the transparency of the Internet on pricing, are going to lower their price tomorrow. So there's just nothing to gain there. Now if we're priced at line, we always have to fix that, but as Tom said, that's just not the case. We -- I think our company and all of our competitors spend the time, spend a lot of time on ensuring that we're price competitive, and we just don't feel like there's anything to gain by lowering our prices as long as we're in a competitive position.

既然這是一個計劃問題──我是湯姆，我就來回答這個問題。我們對目前的定價感到滿意。顯然，我們在市場上競爭非常激烈，而且我們的業務是技術性很強的業務。決定商品對顧客價值的不僅是商品的價格，我們一直認為我們提供的服務定價合理。此外，降低價格對我們也沒有任何好處。我的意思是，如果我們今天降低了某個特定類別的價格，可以肯定的是，由於網路定價的透明度，我們的競爭對手明天也會降低價格。所以這樣做沒有任何好處。如果價格是按線定價，我們就必須解決這個問題，但正如湯姆所說，情況並非如此。我認為我們公司和所有競爭對手都花費大量時間來確保價格競爭力，只要我們保持競爭力，我們就覺得降低價格沒有任何好處。

And on the IT investment, I mean, Home Depot made a big thing about ramping spend on more direct distribution. Is that part of the CapEx increase you guys are talking about or no?

至於 IT 投資方面，我的意思是，家得寶大力加大了對更直接分銷管道的投入。這是否包含在你們所說的資本支出增加中？

This is Tom. I'll start, and Jeff can add on. But -- investment and distribution is something we've always done and availability is such a crucial piece of what we do. That's always in our CapEx plan.

這是湯姆。我先開始，傑夫可以補充。但是——投資和分銷是我們一直以來都在做的事情，而供貨能力是我們工作中至關重要的一部分。這始終包含在我們的資本支出計劃中。

Well -- and frankly, our -- the number of times that we touch a store now is so significant. Frankly, we've gone overboard in the past. There was a time where we had a pretty important market to us where we were touching our stores 12 times a day out of the distribution center. And we finally realized, this is just -- it's crazy, that we're -- that our service levels are that high when they really didn't need to be because we were far out pacing our competitors. We realized we could outpace our competitors still just touching those stores 8 times a day. So if we felt like that we were even slightly in a noncompetitive position from a availability perspective, we've always got the ability to leverage up our service levels for our DC's and frankly, we feel like we had the best availability in the industry as it stands today.

坦白說，我們現在去商店的次數非常多。坦白說，我們過去確實做得過火了。曾經有一段時間，我們有一個對我們非常重要的市場，我們每天要從配送中心向門市發貨 12 次。我們最終意識到，這簡直太瘋狂了，我們的服務水準竟然如此之高，而實際上並不需要這麼高，因為我們遠遠領先於競爭對手。我們意識到，即使每天只去這些門市 8 次，我們也能超越競爭對手。因此，如果我們覺得我們在可用性方面即使稍微處於不具競爭力的位置，我們始終有能力提高我們資料中心的服務水準。坦白說，我們覺得就目前而言，我們的可用性是業內最好的。

Next, we have Seth Sigman from Crédit Suisse.

接下來，我們請到了瑞士信貸的塞思·西格曼。

Just on the DIY versus commercial commentary, I think you said DIY was weaker. What do you attribute that to in the quarter? And I guess, was the DIY side of the business facing a more difficult comparison? I'm just wondering, had that improved here in the first quarter?

就 DIY 與商業產品的評論而言，我想你曾說過 DIY 的實力較弱。你認為本季出現這種情況的原因是什麼？我猜想，DIY業務方面是否面臨更艱難的比較？我只是想知道，第一季情況是否有改善？

Yes, the DIY was definitely up against a tougher compares and we're seeing a little bit of an uptick in our professional business there in the fourth quarter. Yes. A key driver of that is that during the cold weather in '16, battery sales were pretty incredible, because batteries that didn't fail during the prior winter failed during that winter. Batteries are aligned and it is heavily skewed to the DIY side of the business. But over time, we would expect that as the complexity of cars continues to be more prevalent, that our do-it-for-me business will simply be a stronger business than our DIY business.

是的，DIY業務確實面臨更嚴峻的競爭，我們在第四季度看到專業業務略有回升。是的。其中一個關鍵原因是，在 2016 年的寒冷天氣裡，電池銷量非常驚人，因為在前一個冬天沒有出問題的電池在那個冬天都出了問題。電池產業格局已定，且嚴重偏向DIY業務。但隨著時間的推移，隨著汽車的複雜性日益增加，我們預計我們的代客維修業務將比我們的自助維修業務更強大。

Okay. And then I just want to follow up on the higher expenses for 2018. I know it was asked in a lot of different ways, but is there a way to help us understand what is sort of catch-up spending from 2017? I know you talked about payroll, incentive comp, professional fees all being lower than you had planned in '17. So of that 70 basis points, how much is just simply catch up?

好的。然後，我想就 2018 年較高的支出情況再補充一點。我知道這個問題已經被用很多不同的方式問過了，但是有沒有辦法幫助我們理解什麼是 2017 年的追趕性支出？我知道你曾說過，2017 年的薪水、獎金、專業費用都比你計畫的還要低。那麼，在這 70 個基點中，有多少只是為了追趕？

Well, what we've tried to communicate is that the 70 isn't incremental to what our SG&A plan would look like absent the pressures created by the new tax code.

我們一直試圖傳達的訊息是，這 70 並非是在沒有新稅法帶來的壓力的情況下，我們的銷售、一般及行政費用計劃的增量。

Okay. Well, I guess just given the incremental investments then for this year, for 2018, I mean, bigger picture as you're thinking about past this year, I mean, do you see opportunities to continue to invest or do you think some of these investments are more isolated to 2018?

好的。嗯，我想就今年的增量投資而言，對於 2018 年，我的意思是，從更長遠的角度來看，當您考慮今年以後的情況時，您認為有哪些機會繼續投資，還是您認為其中一些投資更局限於 2018 年？

We would expect the investment to continue in 2019, but we would hope the investments that we're making that the incremental spending, we'd provide even higher levels of service and leverage that with better sales and really increase team member productivity through technology enhancements as well as reducing our team member turnover.

我們預計 2019 年將繼續進行投資，但我們希望透過增加投資，提供更高水準的服務，並透過更好的銷售來提高銷售額，並透過技術改進真正提高團隊成員的生產力，同時降低團隊成員的流動率。

Next, we have Alan Rifkin from BTIG.

接下來，我們請到了 BTIG 的 Alan Rifkin。

So, thank you, Greg Henslee, for everything you've done in the past and certainly congratulations to both Greg Johnson and Jeff on your new appointments. My first question is a follow-up on the reinvestment from the tax reform. So certainly, one would assume that you're making these investments because you believe that you can yield a higher return at some point in the future. Would it be reasonable to assume that these higher returns would start in 2019 or they'll be further out than that?

所以，感謝 Greg Henslee 過去所做的一切，也祝賀 Greg Johnson 和 Jeff 榮任新職。我的第一個問題是關於稅制改革後的再投資情況的後續問題。所以，人們當然會認為你進行這些投資是因為你相信在未來的某個時候可以獲得更高的回報。是否可以合理假設這些更高的回報將從 2019 年開始，還是會更晚？

Well we try to drive higher sales every day. Our plan encompasses the traction we think we'll get this year. Some of these investments are longer-term investments. We would tell you, a big opportunity for us is to reduce our store level turnover as it impacts our service levels.

我們每天都在努力提高銷售額。我們的計劃涵蓋了我們認為今年能夠取得的進展。有些投資屬於長期投資。我們會告訴您，對我們來說，一個很大的機會是降低門市人員流動率，因為這會影響我們的服務水準。

And if I can add to that, Alan. The 2 things, and Tom mentioned one, turnover and omnichannel. It takes a lot to learn how to sell parts. And by decreasing turnover, we feel like long term we put ourselves in a significantly better position to provide service levels to our customers. And just be the professional parts people that our company has been built on. So that really starts generating immediate returns as we start decreasing the percentage of turnover that we have annually. And then omnichannel, we feel like that if we have an opportunity to do better than we do today. And I feel like we do pretty well today. We can do a lot better. And as we make those improvements to our platforms, I think, we see pretty immediate effects of those improvements, but they're incremental. It builds over time, as our professional customers using our portal, learn to use our software, like our software, become committed to us, partly because of service -- mainly because of service, but partly because they like the way our interface works. And same thing applies to our DIY customers. So while all this is incremental over time, some of it has an immediate positive effect.

如果我還能補充一點的話，艾倫。兩件事，湯姆提到了其中一件，就是人員流動和全通路。學習如何銷售零件需要花費大量時間。透過降低人員流動率，我們認為從長遠來看，我們能夠更好地為客戶提供服務水準。你們只需要做我們公司賴以建立的專業零件人員。因此，隨著我們每年人員流動率的下降，就能立即產生回報。至於全通路，我們覺得如果我們有機會做得比現在更好，那就太好了。我覺得我們今天表現得相當不錯。我們還可以做得更好。隨著我們對平台進行這些改進，我認為我們會看到這些改進帶來的即時的效果，但這些效果是漸進的。隨著時間的推移，我們的專業客戶在使用我們的入口網站後，會逐漸學會使用我們的軟體，並喜歡我們的軟體，從而對我們產生忠誠度。這部分是因為我們的服務——主要是因為服務，但部分是因為他們喜歡我們介面的工作方式。這一點同樣適用於我們的DIY客戶。因此，雖然這一切都是隨著時間的推移而逐步發生的，但其中一些會產生即時的正面影響。

Okay. And a follow-up, if I may. So throughout 2017, which was certainly a more difficult year than what many of us expected, you cited a number of factors that you thought were transient, whether it was the SAAR number as a result of the recession, the weather, obviously, Hispanic population headwinds, tax return delays, e-com competition. As you sit here in the early stages of 2018 and you look back on what's happened in 2017, do you still believe that all of those factors that I just cited were in fact, transient? Would do you think any of them would be longer term in nature?

好的。如果可以的話，我想問一個後續問題。因此，在 2017 年，這無疑比我們許多人預期的要艱難得多，你列舉了一些你認為是暫時性的因素，無論是經濟衰退導致的 SAAR 數據，還是天氣，顯然還有西班牙裔人口的逆風、納稅申報延遲、電子商務競爭。時至今日，2018 年開始，當你回顧 2017 年發生的事情時，你是否仍然認為我剛才提到的所有因素實際上都是暫時的？你認為其中哪些會是長期性的？

I'll take it. Well, I think the -- as Tom said earlier, the SAAR issue will resolve this year. So it's hard to measure the extent to which that impacted our business. But we know it had some effect. But that's in the process of curing right now. To me, out of the things that we talked about, SAAR, weather, the Hispanic issue and tax, I feel like weather, having 2 consecutive mild winters and a mild summer, I think, that was probably the factor that impacted us largest. The Hispanic thing, I think, is pretty well resolved and the tax thing is a matter of timing, although the timing is important because if people get their tax refunds at a time when there's cold weather's in place, they're having car trouble, that is going to increase the spend that they put in their car versus maybe a springtime when they've gotten through the winter by patching their car together, and they've got improvements they want to make to their house or something and puts them in a better position to maybe spend money on their house. So the timing is important. But I think that's just a matter of something we look at year to year. But I think the other factors, I think, the Hispanic thing is cured a lot. I think this winter is going to help a lot with the weather issue, and we'll see benefits of that this summer and the SAAR issue is in the process of curing.

我要買它。嗯，我認為——正如湯姆之前所說，SAAR問題將在今年解決。因此，很難衡量這究竟對我們業務造成了多大影響。但我們知道它產生了一定的影響。但現在正在治療中。在我看來，在我們討論的許多事情中，包括季節性調整年率、天氣、西班牙裔問題和稅收，我覺得天氣，尤其是連續兩個暖冬和一個暖夏，可能是對我們影響最大的因素。我認為，關於西班牙裔的問題已經基本解決了，而稅務問題則取決於時機。時機很重要，因為如果人們在寒冷的冬天收到退稅，而他們的汽車又出了問題，那麼他們就會把更多的錢花在汽車上。相比之下，如果是在春天，他們已經修好了車，度過了冬天，而且他們可能還想對房子進行一些改造，這樣他們就更有能力把錢花在房子上。所以時機很重要。但我認為這只是我們每年需要考慮的問題。但我認為其他因素，例如西班牙裔問題，已經基本解決了。我認為這個冬天對解決天氣問題有很大幫助，我們將在今年夏天看到好處，季節性過敏性鼻竇炎（SAAR）問題也正在解決。

Next, we have Carolina Jolly from Gabelli & Company.

接下來，我們邀請了來自 Gabelli & Company 的 Carolina Jolly。

Greg, thanks so much for your service so far. Just quickly, I guess, my one question would just be, do your cash and earnings estimates include any benefit from the new guidelines around the 100% expensing of certain assets?

格雷格，非常感謝你迄今為止的服務。我想快速問一個問題，你們的現金和收益預測是否包含了某些資產100%費用化新準則帶來的任何好處？

That sounds like an accounting question. I'll take that one. Over the years, there have been many programs that have accelerated the depreciation of certain fixed assets and we've taken advantage of those, but I would tell you is that the change in the law changed those this year for us from a headwind as we turned the corner on having a bigger GAAP deduction and tax deduction to equal. So the answer is yes, it does include that. That benefit is not as big for us because of past opportunities to accelerate depreciation.

這聽起來像是個會計問題。我選那個。多年來，有很多項目加速了某些固定資產的折舊，我們也利用了這些項目，但我要告訴你們的是，今年的法律變化改變了這一切，使我們從不利因素轉變為有利因素，因為我們獲得了更大的 GAAP 扣除額和稅收扣除額，兩者相等。所以答案是肯定的，它確實包含了這部分。由於過去有機會加速折舊，因此對我們來說，這項收益並不大。

Okay, perfect. And then I guess, another kind of accounting question. Can you give -- can you quantify any effects on the LIFO charges that might have affected this quarter's margin?

好的，完美。然後，我想，還有另一種會計方面的問題。您能否量化一下後進先出法（LIFO）費用對本季利潤率可能造成的任何影響？

We were in the $3 million or $4 million range.

我們當時的預算在300萬到400萬美元之間。

And next, we have Michael Lasser from UBS.

接下來，我們請到了瑞銀集團的麥可‧拉塞爾。

My question is a little bit geared towards the first quarter. So you got a 2% to 4%, you said you're pleased with the business, you talked about some of the ebbs and flows. Are you surprised that business hasn't come back stronger?

我的問題主要針對第一季。所以你的收益率是 2% 到 4%，你說你對業務很滿意，你也談到了一些起伏。你是否對企業未能強勁復甦感到驚訝？

What I would say is that we always do as much as we can to drive as much business as we can within reason. I think one of the factors that has probably caused business not to be maybe stronger than it is, but again, we're not displeased with our business. We're pleased with how we've done in January. As Greg mentioned, some of the cold weather that we had pushed down into markets that don't benefit from cold weather immediately. When Dallas-Fort Worth shuts down, and you look out your window and there's no cars on the road, that's just not a good day for us. And those factors existed in many southern markets, which helped dampen maybe the positive effect that we're having from a cold winter. Longer term, the fact that we're having this cold weather and we've had this cold weather through some of the markets, it's going to be a positive thing for our industry this year, I would think.

我想說的是，我們總是在合理範圍內盡我們所能去推動盡可能多的業務發展。我認為導致公司業務發展不如預期強勁的一個因素可能是…但是，我們對目前的業務狀況並不感到不滿。我們對一月份的業績感到滿意。正如格雷格所提到的那樣，我們帶來的部分寒冷天氣影響到了那些不會立即受益於寒冷天氣的市場。當達拉斯-沃斯堡地區交通癱瘓，你向窗外望去，路上空無一車，這對我們來說絕對不是個好日子。這些因素在許多南方市場都存在，這可能削弱了寒冷冬季帶來的正面影響。從長遠來看，我們正經歷寒冷天氣，而且一些市場也經歷了寒冷天氣，我認為這對我們這個行業今年來說將是一件好事。

And without getting to granular on what you're seeing by market, when the business does come back in those markets that are normally not used to seeing the weather, is it better than it's been? So the store may be closed when there's a lot of snow, but then the next day it's quite good? Or is that not how it's happening?

暫且不深入探討各市場的具體情況，當那些通常不受天氣影響的市場恢復營業時，情況是否比以前更好？所以，下大雪的時候商店可能會關門，但第二天情況就很好？或者，實際情況並非如此？

Usually those markets don't get as extreme a cold weather that would drive part failure as the northern markets, where it just get brutal cold weather which causes rubber to not be as flexible, causes belts to break, causes starter motors not to work as well, causes batteries to fail, cooling systems freeze up. I mean, there's just all kinds of things that you can have in the extreme weather. You don't get quite as much benefit in the warmer markets that aren't used to cold weather, because in Dallas-Fort Worth, when it gets to 20 degrees, that's really cold weather, but that's really not cold enough to cause the kind of damage that we're talking about in the northern markets.

通常情況下，這些市場不會像北方市場一樣遭遇極端寒冷天氣，導致零件損壞。北方市場會遭遇嚴寒天氣，導致橡膠失去柔韌性，導致皮帶斷裂，導致起動馬達運作不正常，導致電池失效，冷卻系統結冰。我的意思是，極端天氣下會發生各種各樣的事情。在氣候溫暖、不習慣寒冷天氣的市場，你不會獲得那麼多好處，因為在達拉斯-沃斯堡，當氣溫降到零下20度時，那確實是寒冷的天氣，但這還不足以造成我們在北方市場所說的那種損害。

And Michael, this is Greg. Another benefit there, it's fortunate in many of those southern markets, that when they get bad weather and it does impact road conditions, and as I said, they're not as equipped to clear that. But typically, the weather turns around really quickly. You don't have snow and ice on the roads very long. So the recovery is really quick to get back to business as normal.

邁克爾，這位是格雷格。另一個好處是，幸運的是，在許多南方市場，當惡劣天氣影響道路狀況時，正如我所說，他們沒有那麼多的資源來清理道路。但通常情況下，天氣變化很快。道路上的積雪和冰不會持續很長時間。因此，恢復速度非常快，很快就能恢復正常運作。

And my follow-up question is, we've all become accustomed to seeing massive share gains from O'Reilly, and you guys widely outperforming your competition. Over the last 4, 5 quarters, your comps have been a little bit more consistent with some of what the peers have been reporting. Do you think it's just harder to gain share perhaps, because share's going to other channels at this point?

我的後續問題是，我們都已經習慣了看到 O'Reilly 的市佔率大幅成長，你們的表現也遠遠超過了競爭對手。在過去的 4、5 個季度裡，你們的業績與一些同業報告的業績更加一致。你認為現在要取得市場佔有率是不是更難了，因為市佔率正在流向其他通路？

Michael, this is Tom. What I would tell you is that some of our competitors have a different scale. They have different measuring period than we have. We're basically looking at our comparable store sales on exactly their calendar. And we continue to be comfortable with our performance. The other thing I would say is that -- a couple things is, one, the SAAR pressure is primarily a DIFM item as those new tires enter their repair cycle, that tends to be a DIFM customer, and we have that at higher percentage than some of our competitors on the do-it-for-me side of the business. The other part is you look at our 2- and 3-year stacks, there's quite a spread. Yes. And then additionally, back a few years ago, when we had some ground to gain just from a per store average standpoint as compared to our best competitors. And again, we have many great competitors. Our per store average is now caught up and ahead of rest of our competitors, and we simply just don't have as much to gain in that general basis, but we still feel like we're best positioned to lead the industry from a comp store sales perspective, and we would expect to continue to do so.

邁克爾，這是湯姆。我想告訴你們的是，我們的一些競爭對手採用了不同的規模。他們的計量週期和我們不一樣。我們基本上是按照他們的日曆來查看我們可比門店的銷售情況。我們對自己的表現依然感到滿意。我還要補充一點——有兩點：第一，SAAR 壓力主要是一個 DIFM 項目，因為這些新輪胎進入維修週期時，往往是 DIFM 客戶，而且我們在代客維修業務方面的比例比一些競爭對手要高。另一方面，看看我們 2 年和 3 年的股票組合，分佈相當廣泛。是的。此外，幾年前，當我們與最好的競爭對手相比，僅從每家門市的平均業績來看，我們還有一些差距需要縮小。而且，我們也有很多強大的競爭對手。我們每家門市的平均銷售額現在已經趕上並領先於其他競爭對手，從總體上看，我們已經沒有多少提升空間了，但我們仍然認為，從同店銷售的角度來看，我們處於行業領先地位，我們也希望繼續保持這種地位。

And Greg -- one more thing to add to that is it's not just about the publicly-traded peers. I mean, there's over 36,000 parts stores all across the country and there's a lot of market out there, it happens 1 store at a time.

格雷格——還有一點要補充的是，這不僅僅是關於上市的同行。我的意思是，全國有超過 36,000 家汽車零件商店，市場很大，這是一家一家地發生的。

Next, we have Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley.

接下來，我們請到了摩根士丹利的西蒙古特曼。

First -- my first question is on sales. I guess following on Michael's question, can you just tell us if you're comfortable for the start of the first quarter, how big is the spread and performance between markets? I don't know if you want to call it good or bad. And then, within the sales part, are you seeing any evidence that you're seeing the vintages of the 6 to 11-year-old cars creep back? And any larger type weather repairs happening, not just batteries and starters and alternators?

首先——我的第一個問題是關於銷售的。我想接著邁克爾的問題，您能否告訴我們，您對第一季的開局是否感到滿意，市場之間的價差和表現如何？我不知道該稱之為好還是壞。那麼，在銷售方面，您是否看到任何證據表明，車齡 6 至 11 年的汽車銷售正在回升？除了電池、起動機和交流發電機之外，還有其他更大規模的天氣災害維修嗎？

Simeon, I would say that the spread across markets was fairly similar to what we've seen over the past few quarters with our more mature markets being a bit softer than our less mature markets. Our northern markets and western markets have performed a little better this winter than -- earlier this winter than our central U.S. markets. I'm sorry, what was the second part of your question?

西蒙，我認為各市場的差異與我們過去幾季看到的情況相當相似，其中成熟市場的疲軟程度略高於不太成熟的市場。今年冬天，我們北部和西部市場的表現比美國中部市場略好一些——而且這種情況在今年冬天早些時候就出現了。抱歉，您的問題第二部分是什麼？

The vintages, if you're seeing any signs that -- you're seeing the sweet spot come back already, I mean, in this part of the year. And then as part of that also, just after the weather, are you seeing any bigger type breakage or repairs begin to happen? There's usually a lag after some of the simple things that start to snap.

如果你看到任何跡象表明——你看到最佳時機已經回歸，我的意思是，在這個季節。此外，天氣過後，您是否看到任何較大的損壞或維修開始發生？通常，一些簡單的事情開始順利進行之後，會有一段延遲期。

Yes, I wouldn't say we're seeing anything yet. I think most of the upside from the weather is still yet to come. Again, with the exception of the winter weather related categories, wipers, batteries, things like that.

是的，我覺得我們目前還沒看到任何跡象。我認為天氣帶來的好處大部分還沒有顯現。再次強調，除了與冬季天氣相關的類別，例如雨刷、電池等等。

To meet -- they meet the demand.

為了滿足——他們滿足了需求。

Okay. And then my follow-up is on gross margin. I'm trying to think through the components, maybe how price is behaving relative to the cost of goods sold. And so I'm curious if you're seeing any pressure on sort of their price -- the selling price, and the expansion that's embedded in the guidance is coming from just lowering acquisition cost, vis-à-vis your suppliers.

好的。接下來，我要問的是毛利率。我正在努力分析各個組成部分，例如價格相對於銷售成本的變化。所以我很好奇，您是否看到他們的售價面臨任何壓力——而指導意見中體現的擴張是否僅僅來自於降低供應商的採購成本。

Yes, I mean, it's coming from a few different places. As we say, the lowering cost is a small part of that. We expect that to be more so in the front half of the year than on the back half of the year. But a lot of it is coming just from leveraging stronger sales, leveraging our fixed cost across the stronger sales share that we expect.

是的，我的意思是，它來自幾個不同的地方。正如我們所說，降低成本只是其中的一小部分。我們預計上半年這種情況會比下半年更為明顯。但其中很大一部分收益來自於更強勁的銷售，也就是透過提高銷售份額來降低固定成本，正如我們預期的那樣。

And the selling price is generally stable?

售價大致比較穩定嗎？

Selling price is generally stable. We monitor our pricing with our competitors as do they us constantly, and we feel like we don't expect to see a lot of inflation on the cost side or the selling price side this year.

售價通常較穩定。我們和競爭對手會不斷關注彼此的價格，我們認為今年成本和售價方面都不會出現太大的通貨膨脹。

And next, we have Christopher Horvers from JPMorgan.

接下來，我們請到了摩根大通的克里斯多福‧霍弗斯。

A couple of quick follow-ups on sort of weather and the quarter trend. As you look at December, was that real tough compare? Did you accelerate on the 2-year stack? And did you see on that basis much difference in the DIY versus the do-it-for-me side?

關於天氣和季度趨勢，還有幾點需要快速跟進。回顧12月份，那段時間的比較真的很難嗎？你是否加快了兩年技術棧的開發進程？那麼，基於這些因素，你認為DIY和找人代勞有很大的差別嗎？

Chris, this is Tom. We don't comment on our monthly comps. I guess we commented on 2 months this year because they were negative and the only negative comp months we've had in a long, long time. But individually, we're not going to comment on monthly comps.

克里斯，這是湯姆。我們不評論每月的業績對比情況。我想我們之所以對今年的兩個月進行評論，是因為這兩個月的業績為負，而且這是我們很長一段時間以來唯一出現負業績的月份。但就個別情況而言，我們不會對每月的業績比較發表評論。

Okay, understood. And then does -- on the southern markets, I understand that shutting down of DFW and how that would be a negative to overall, but does getting down to the 20s lead to better trends during the summer months in that region?

好的，明白了。那麼——就南方市場而言，我理解達拉斯-沃斯堡國際機場關閉會對整體產生負面影響，但是氣溫降至 20 多度是否會導致該地區夏季幾個月的趨勢好轉呢？

Not as much as it would in the northern months, but I think it is helpful. The cold weather is hard on a lot of components. The part of it is just do the damage to roads and things like that from a extended freeze and thaw, and freeze and thaw, and you just don't have as much of that in the southern markets. So you have some benefit, but it's not nearly as positive of a benefit as it would be in the northern markets where you had the deep breeze and then the thaws that are so damaging to the roads.

雖然不如北方月份那麼明顯，但我認為這是有幫助的。寒冷天氣對很多部件都是一種損害。部分原因是長時間的凍融循環會對道路等造成損害，而南方市場則不多見。所以你確實會得到一些好處，但遠不如北方市場那麼有利，因為北方市場有強勁的微風，然後是融化的冰雪，這對道路造成了極大的破壞。

And then, the last question. As you think about your whether assumption is neutral for the year, obviously, January and early February starting out better than a year ago, what's your underlying assumption in terms of the outlook for the summer? Are you expecting a normal summer? A cooler summer? Is that going to offset the early strength on the winter front?

最後，是最後一個問題。當你考慮到今年的預期是中性的時，顯然，1 月和 2 月初的情況比去年同期要好，那麼你對夏季前景的基本假設是什麼？你期待一個正常的夏天嗎？一個涼爽的夏天？這能否抵消冬季鋒面早期帶來的強勁勢頭？

Yes. We would expect a warmer summer, and we would expect that based on -- as we said, the more harsh winter we've had this year, more product failures and a better summer selling season.

是的。我們預計今年夏天會比較暖和，這是基於——正如我們所說——今年冬天更加嚴寒，產品故障率更高，夏季銷售旺季也會更好。

We have reached our allotted time for question. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Greg Henslee for closing remarks.

我們的提問時間已到。現在我將把電話交還給格雷格·亨斯利先生，請他作總結發言。

Actually it's Greg Johnson.

其實是格雷格·約翰遜。

Yes. Jason, this a Greg Johnson. Thank you very much. We'd like to conclude our call today by thanking the entire O'Reilly team for your continued dedication to customer service in the third quarter. We look forward to a solid year in 2018. And we like to thank everyone for joining our call today, and we look forward to reporting our 2018 first quarter results in April. Thank you.

是的。傑森，我是格雷格·約翰遜。非常感謝。在今天的電話會議結束之際，我們要感謝 O'Reilly 團隊全體成員在第三季對客戶服務的持續奉獻。我們期待2018年能有佳績。我們感謝各位今天參加我們的電話會議，並期待在四月公佈我們 2018 年第一季的業績。謝謝。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.

謝謝。女士們、先生們，今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與，您現在可以斷開連接了。