Cracker Barrel Ends Year on Strong Note
September 14 2016 - 9:40AM
Dow Jones News
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. posted mostly
better-than-expected results for the last quarter of its fiscal
year, but the casual dining and retail chain operator gave downbeat
guidance for the current quarter and year.
The Lebanon, Tenn., company's shares, up 19% this year, fell 2%
to $147.50 in recent premarket trading.
Cracker Barrel has continued to report stronger earnings in
recent quarters as it has benefited from cost-cutting efforts,
higher menu prices at its restaurants and sales growth at its
so-called "country" retail stores, even though customer traffic has
weakened.
Most restaurant operators have been feeling some pressure as
consumers are eating out less—ranging from fast-food vendors like
McDonald's Corp. to casual-dining companies such as Darden
Restaurants Inc.
For the fiscal year ending in July 2017, the company forecast
per-share earnings of $7.95 to $8.10 and revenue of $2.95 billion
to $3 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected
per-share profit of $8.32 and revenue of $3.01 billion.
For the current quarter, Cracker Barrel predicted per-share
earnings of $1.75 to $1.85, while analysts expected per-share
profit of $1.94.
For the period ended July 29, Cracker Barrel said
same-restaurant sales grew 3.2%, as a 1.2% decline in customer
traffic was offset by a 4.4% growth in the average customer check.
Average menu prices rose 2.4%.
Comparable retail sales improved 3.5%.
Over all, Cracker Barrel reported a profit of $51 million, or
$2.12 a share, up from $47.4 million, or $1.97 a share, a year
earlier. The company expected per-share profit of $2.05 to
$2.15.
Revenue increased 3.7% to $745.6 million, above analysts'
expectations for revenue of $741 million.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 14, 2016 09:25 ET (13:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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