CBRL - Cracker Barrel stock rises on earnings beat above-consensus sales guide

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store ( NASDAQ: CBRL ) shares rose sharply on Tuesday after topping fiscal Q2 estimates and raising expectations into the second half of the fiscal year.

For the fiscal second quarter, the restaurant chain posted $1.48 in earnings per share, beating consensus estimates by $0.12. Meanwhile, $933.9M in revenue exceeded analyst expectations by $16.43M. Comparable store restaurant sales increased 8.4%, while comparable store retail sales increased 4.1%. The former came in above a 6.46% consensus estimate while the latter fell short of the 5.11% anticipated by analysts. An approximately 9% menu price hike helped lift sales for the quarter.

“I am pleased with our second quarter results, as we delivered sales and operating income margin that exceeded expectations. I was especially pleased with our off-premise and retail performance,” CEO Sandra B. Cochran said. “We saw strong demand for our holiday Heat n' Serve offerings, we meaningfully grew our catering business, and guests responded well to our retail assortments. We are making great progress on key initiatives, and I believe we are well-positioned to deliver further performance improvements in the back half of the fiscal year."

Management expects total revenue growth of 7% to 9% year over year, above the Street consensus of 6.63%.

Commodity inflation of 8.5% to 9.0% and wage inflation of approximately 6.5% are expected for the remainder of the fiscal year. Cost savings and pricing actions are anticipated to help offset cost increases, contributing $25M to profitability through the remainder of the year. The company forecast adjusted operating income margin rate of 4.3% to 4.7% for the third quarter, improving to 6.5% to 7.0% in Q4.

Shares of the Tennessee-based restaurant and retail chain rose 3.07% in premarket trading on Tuesday.

Read more on the details of the quarter .

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