UPDATE 1-Advance Auto posts lower earnings, shares fall

(Updates with earnings outlook, share price, detail)

DETROIT, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Advance Auto Parts Inc (AAP.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the No. 2 U.S. auto parts retailer, reported an almost 2 percent decline in quarterly earnings on Wednesday on higher interest costs and slower sales to customers buying parts for do-it-yourself repairs.

The company's fourth-quarter profit and outlook for 2008 both fell short of Wall Street expectations and shares in Advance Auto parts fell 5 percent in after-market trade.

Net income fell to $34.8 million, or 35 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 29, from $35.4 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier. Net sales rose to $1.04 billion from $1.02 billion a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, expected the Roanoke, Virginia-based company to report earnings of 37 cents per share on revenue of $1.06 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Citing economic uncertainty, the company forecast flat sales on a comparable store basis with full-year earnings per share of $2.55, up 12 percent from $2.28 in 2007.

A 1-percent improvement in same-store sales over that forecast would boost earnings per share by about 10 cents, the company said in a release issued after the close of trade.

Analysts, on average, had forecast earnings per share of $2.64 for the year, according to Reuters Estimates.

The company, the second-largest U.S. auto parts retailer after AutoZone Inc. (AZO.N: Quote, Profile, Research), said its sales on a comparable store basis in the fourth quarter had declined 0.4 percent because of a slump in sales for do-it-yourself repairs during the year-end holiday season.

It also cited "difficult" sales conditions in the Florida and Gulf Coast states. The company operated 3,261 stores in 40 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as of year-end. (Reporting by Kevin Krolicki; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Gunna Dickson)