Cracker Barrel stock tumbles more than 11% after big profit miss, trimmed revenue outlook

Shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. tumbled 11.5% in premarket trading Friday, after the home-style restaurant chain with retail stores inside missed fiscal first-quarter profit expectations, as cost inflation surpassed menu price increases, and trimmed its full-year revenue outlook. Net income dropped to $17.1 million, or 77 cents a share, from $33.4 million, or $1.41 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of 99 cents was well below the FactSet consensus of $1.22. Revenue rose 7.0% to $839.5 million, above the FactSet consensus of $836.9 million. Same-restaurant sales grew 7.1%, including total menu pricing of 7.8%, and same-retail store sale increased 4.3%. For fiscal 2023, the company trimmed its revenue growth outlook to 6% to 8% from 7% to 8%. Separately, the company declared a regular quarterly dividend of $1.30 a share, payable Jan. 31 to shareholders of record on Jan. 13. Based on Thursday’s stock closing price of $113.56, the annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 4.58%, compared with the implied yield for the S&P 500 of 1.64%. The stock has gained 5.6% over the past three months through Thursday while the S&P 500 has tacked on 3.9%.

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