Hey, kids! Let's play a game we like to call Beat Expectations. It's a lot like Whack-a-Mole, only you have to swing your padded hammer at things that pop up like rising cheese prices and a tenuous economy. Chuck E. Cheese parent CEC Entertainment
Last night, CEC posted another kid-friendly quarter. Earnings grew by 24% to $0.82 a share, while revenues clocked in at $206.9 million. That's smartly ahead of the $0.77 a share the company had projected it would earn just two months ago.
That's especially impressive when one considers that the company's core cheese costs soared by 36% -- and that transforming itself into Chuck E. Cheeseless was out of the question.
Thankfully, CEC isn't saddled with the rising fuel costs that plague pizza delivery rivals Papa John's
That poses another interesting arcade game concept. The stock trades at just 15 times this year's projected bottom line. Investors who take to these shares like a Pac Man to shiny blue meanies may end up the big winners.
Have you ever been inside a Chuck E. Cheese? Is it playful or sensory overload? Where can you take a young child that needs to unwind? Can a trip to Chuck E. Cheese be considered educational? All this and more -- in the Parents and Expecting Parents discussion board. Only on Fool.com.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz went to a Chuck E. Cheese with his kids just twice last year. He's a Skee-ball demon, though. Don't go messing with him! He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story.
