What happened
Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) wasn’t exactly soaring on Hump Day. After the restaurant operator reported its latest set of quarterly results, the stock fell; in late-afternoon trading, it was down by over 3%.
So what
Somewhat paradoxically, Wingstop’s headline numbers actually edged past analyst estimates when it issued second-quarter results today. The company booked an even $74 million in revenue, slightly higher than the $73.1 million collectively expected by prognosticators and 1% above the year-ago result. That was on the back of same-store sales growth of 2.1%.
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
On the bottom line, the company’s adjusted net income saw a 13% increase to $11.3 million, or $0.38 per share. This was comfortably above the average analyst forecast of $0.33.
Commenting on Wingstop’s results, CEO Charlie Morrison said: “Despite the challenging commodity environment, we had another record quarter for development and have now opened more than 200 restaurants during the last 12 months, highlighting our brand partners’ continued excitement to grow with our brand. We believe we are well positioned to execute against our strategic long-term growth drivers.”
As of late June, Wingstop had 1,624 restaurants in total, 1,449 of which were in the U.S.
Now what
The company proffered selected guidance for full-year 2021. It believes it will post same-store growth in mid-single-digit percentages. It did not provide revenue or profitability estimates. Perhaps that was one factor in the market’s reaction to the results; another might be fear that the current surge in U.S. COVID-19 cases will put a damper on growth.
