FWRG - First Watch Restaurant stock flies higher on strong sales growth

2023-05-02 08:16:40 ET

First Watch Restaurant ( NASDAQ: FWRG ) shares rose about 12% in premarket action on Tuesday after topping Q1 expectations.

Management reported $0.15 in earnings per share, coming in $0.06 above analyst expectations. Meanwhile, a 21.9% jump in revenue to $211.05M narrowly exceeded estimates . The restaurant operator notched same-restaurant sales growth of 12.9% and same-restaurant traffic growth of 5.1% while noting the opening of 10 new restaurants in 7 states.

“First Watch delivered yet another strong quarter. Most notably, we continued to differentiate ourselves by driving traffic share with disciplined operational execution as evidenced by our first quarter Restaurant-Level Operating Profit margin of 21.2% and Adjusted EBITDA of $27.4 million,” CEO Chris Tomasso commented. “Despite an increasingly fragile consumer environment, our first quarter performance reaffirms my continued confidence in First Watch’s leadership position and our strong consumer value proposition.”

Moving forward in 2023, management expects total revenue growth in the range of 16% to 20%, suggesting upside to the 17.48% consensus. Same-restaurant sales growth in the range of 6% to 8% with positive same-restaurant traffic growth is also projected.

Shares of First Watch Restaurant Group ( FWRG ) jumped 11.98% in premarket trading after the print .

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