Bloomin' Brands (BLMN 3.51%), parent company of Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba's Italian Grill, and other restaurant chains, has seen its share price edge upward in Friday morning trading after it provided an interim business update and second-quarter results. According to Zacks, Bloomin' beat on earnings per share (EPS), with a Q2 loss of $0.74 per share, a 35.65% positive surprise compared to analyst consensus estimates of a $1.15 loss per share.
While Bloomin's EPS losses were notably better than expected, its total quarterly revenue of $578.5 million missed predictions by 3.85%. The revenue haul also showed the powerful downward impact of COVID-19, coming in 43.4% lower year over year than Q2 2019's $1.02 billion. Combined U.S. comparable restaurant sales, or comps, across all of Bloomin's brands fell by 39.4% year over year for the 13 weeks ending on June 28.
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Nevertheless, Chief Executive Officer David Deno struck an upbeat tone in his statement accompanying the interim business update. Deno cited several factors working in Bloomin's favor. One is the company's agility in switching to delivery and similar methods of getting food to customers as dining rooms shut down, noting the "rapid growth we experienced in off-premises sales allowed us to keep substantially all of our locations open during this time."
The Bloomin' CEO also observed strategic decisions made during the pandemic are yielding good results now, saying the "decision to not furlough any employees during this pandemic has allowed us to quickly prepare our restaurants to reopen dining rooms in a safe and efficient manner." Ninety-two percent of the company's U.S. restaurants have at least some dine-in capacity open again, and cash flow turned positive in June.
