Fastest-growing rank: 51
Fortune 1000 rank: 424
One of the largest specialty retailers of auto parts, O'Reilly is off to a financially sound start for the first half of this year. In January, the company began a stock buyback plan and has repurchased more than $400 million worth of shares. The company's board has since authorized purchase of another $500 million worth in the next three years. It opened 99 stores in the first half of 2011 and has plans for another 71 by year-end. Currently, the company has 3,657 stores in 39 states across the country.
The company's rapid pace of expansion has also come through acquisitions -- mergers that come with risks. Earlier this month, O'Reilly paid $21 million to the Department of Justice to end an investigation into the accounting practices of CSK, a company it acquired in 2008. The alleged violations occurred before O'Reilly purchased it.
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