Mike,
Lots of good food for thought in your post, but may I ask why are you so focused on their gas profits? If I’m not mistaken, that only accounts for about 25% of their gross profit:
http://secfilings.nasdaq.com/filingFrameset.asp?FileName=000…
I think the bigger underlying story may be the profitability of the non-gas categories, particularly prepared foods/fountain drinks. I.e., they are sort of a restaurant disguised as a convenience store.
A PE of 30+ is pretty common for a restaurant in growth mode. So by that standard, CASY might be considered cheap. What do you think of this? Apples to oranges?
Cheers,
Eric
long CASY