Shares of Krispy Kreme (DNUT -0.84%), maker of tasty donuts, delivered a less-than-delicious earnings report this morning, sending the stock down 8% in 11:40 a.m. ET trading.

Heading into quarter three, analysts had forecast Krispy Kreme would earn at least a $0.05 per share adjusted profit on sales of $413.5 million. But it seems breakfast shoppers held their appetites in check during the most recent quarter. Krispy Kreme's actual profit was only $0.03 per share, and its sales fell short as well -- $407.4 million.

Krispy Kreme sales and earnings

It gets worse. While Krispy Kreme grew its sales a respectable 8% year over year in Q3, the company says this resulted in an "adjusted" profit. However, when calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Krispy Kreme actually lost money for the quarter.

Indeed, it lost more money this quarter than it did a year ago. On the bottom line, Krispy Kreme's GAAP losses totaled $0.24 per share -- 50% worse than last year's $0.16 per share quarterly loss.

Is Krispy Kreme stock a buy?

And investors shouldn't expect better news in the coming fourth-quarter report. CEO Mike Tattersfield boasted that Krispy Kreme "accelerated" its pace of rolling out new Global Points of Access (i.e., both free-standing stores and other places to buy donuts), adding 14% more such points of access year over year to reach 13,394 locations. He said, "Momentum continues into the seasonally strong fourth quarter enhanced by continued growth in global Points of Access" (emphasis added).

Yet, all this growth is only supposed to add up to about 9% sales growth through the end of 2023 (a bit less than $1.7 billion in revenue), with existing locations actually growing their sales more than new locations add to the number.

On the bottom line, meanwhile, Krispy Kreme said it will earn $0.31 to $0.34 per share. That's roughly in line with analyst estimates ($0.32 per share), but it's also a non-GAAP figure. Chances are, this year's end result will be another GAAP loss for Krispy Kreme.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I cannot recommend buying Krispy Kreme stock.