Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc.(RRGB), a casual dining restaurant chain, Thursday reported a lower profit for the third quarter as revenues declined 10% from last year.
Greenwood village, Colorado-based Red Robin posted third-quarter net income of $5.70 million or $0.37 per share, compared with $6.17 million or $0.40 per share in the prior year period.
On average, 15 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.37 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Revenue for the period declined 10.4% to $186.94 million from $280.63 million in the comparable period last year. Analysts expected revenue of $197.54 million for the quarter.
Red Robin noted that revenue for the quarter includes company-owned restaurant sales and franchise royalties and fees of $3.0 million, that edged down 8% from $3.3 million in the same quarter last year.
Comparable restaurant sales for the company-owned restaurants declined 14.9% mainly due to a 13.8% decline in guest counts and 1.1% decrease in the average guest check.
Average weekly comparable sales from the 269 company-owned comparable restaurants was $51.96 thousand, down from $62.18 thousand for the 233 company-owned comparable restaurants in the comparable quarter last year.
Average weekly sales for the 35 non-comparable company-owned restaurants declined to $49.38 thousand from $56.11 thousand for the 44 non-comparable restaurants in the prior year quarter.
For the current quarter, the company's U.S. franchise restaurant sales was lower to $64.6 thousand from $71.6 thousand in the prior year period.
Comparable sales for franchise restaurants in the U.S. Decreased 14.4%, and in Canada it declined 0.2% from the year ago period, said Red Robin
Average weekly comparable sales for the U.S. franchised restaurants was $47.99 thousand from the 101 comparable restaurants compared to $56.74 thousand for the 94 comparable restaurants in the same quarter last year.
Average weekly sales for the company's 18 comparable franchise restaurants in Canada was C$52.90 thousand, compared to C$53.0 thousand in the same period last year.
In the recent quarter,restaurant-level operating profit margins at the company-owned restaurants was 16.5%, down from 18.5% in the prior year period.
Total costs and expenses declined to $178.80 million from $198.71 million in the prior year quarter. The company's income from operations reduced to $8.14 million, from $9.92 million last year.
For the nine-month period, the company reported net income of $15.96 million or $1.03 per share, compared with $21.34 million or $1.31 per share in the prior-year. Year-to-date, revenues fell to $658.84 million from $670.61 million last year.
The company expects guest counts to be negative for the fiscal 2009. Restaurant-level operating margins is expected to decline by 150 to 160 basis points and for every 10 basis point change in restaurant level operating profit in the full year, earnings per share is estimated to be impacted by approximately $0.04.
Red Robin opened the last two of the 15 company-owned restaurants planned for fiscal 2009 in the third quarter. One new franchised restaurant scheduled to open in mid December is expected to be the last of five new franchised restaurant openings during fiscal 2009.
RRGB last traded on Thursday at $17.69, up $0.68 or 4.00% on a volume of 0.22 million shares on the Nasdaq.
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