What happened
Shares of Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) were down 10.5% as of 3:30 p.m. EDT Thursday, after the casual-dining restaurant chain announced weaker-than-expected second-quarter 2017 results.
So what
Quarterly revenue rose 2% year over year to $500 million -- well below the $513.3 million investors were expecting -- hurt by a 1.2% decline in company-owned same-store sales. Meanwhile, adjusted net income declined 50.7% to $0.66 per share, which fell far short of the $1.05 per share predicted by Wall Street. Buffalo Wild Wings CEO Sally Smith noted that historically high traditional wing prices, a shift in mix toward promotional days, weak traffic trends, and higher operating expenses all put pressure on profits during the quarter.
IMAGE SOURCE: BUFFALO WILD WINGS.
Now what
Buffalo Wild Wings will continue focusing on cost reductions, and plans to feature boneless wings rather than traditional wings in its popular Tuesday promotion -- a move, as management noted during the subsequent conference call, that has yielded promising results in early tests at a select number of locations.
"Due to our disappointing second-quarter earnings and an outlook for slowing traffic as we manage through the Tuesday promotional change," Smith added, "we are lowering our 2017 earnings outlook."
More specifically, Buffalo Wild Wings now expects full-year same-store sales to decline in the range of 2% to 1% (a reduction from growth of 1% per previous guidance), which should result in adjusted earnings per share of $4.50 to $5.00 (down from a per-share range of $5.45 to $5.90 before).
In the end, that's a discouraging downward revision any way you slice it, so it should hardly be surprising that Buffalo Wild Wings stock touched a new 52-week low early today.
