Cracker Barrel Old Country Store
stock was falling Tuesday after the restaurant chain missed revenue and earnings expectations for its fiscal third quarter as traffic declined.
Cracker Barrel (ticker: CBRL) reported earnings of $1.21 a share on revenue of $832.7 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting earnings of $1.34 a share on revenue of $845.7 million.
“Our third-quarter results included solid comparable-store restaurant sales growth of 7.4% compared with the prior year,” Chief Executive Sandra Cochran said in the earnings release. She added that this was below expectations “as a result of the casual dining traffic declines that occurred toward the end of the quarter.”
The company also said operating income for the quarter was $16.8 million, which was a major decline from the same quarter the prior year when it posted $30.5 million. Cracker Barrel said the decrease in operating income was mostly due to impairment charges, store-closure expenses, higher general and administrative expenses, and the higher cost of retail goods.
Cracker Barrel also provided an outlook for the fourth quarter that disappointed investors—the company expects total revenue growth of between 1% and 3% compared with the prior year. That would imply fourth-quarter revenue below analysts’ estimates of $886.8 million.
Shares of Cracker Barrel fell 4.1% Tuesday to $93.33. The stock has declined 1.5% so far this year.
Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected]
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