The Cheesecake Factory ( NASDAQ: CAKE ) shares slid over 10% in after hours trading on Tuesday after reporting big misses on Q3 earnings expectations.
The California-based restaurant chain reported a surprise loss of $0.03 per share, well below the analyst consensus that was set at $0.30 in earnings per share. Meanwhile, a modest 3.9% jump in revenue to $784M, came up $15.22M of expectations. Comparable restaurant sales at restaurants increased 1.1% from the prior year quarter, which also lagged an expectation of a 2.8% increase.
“While our operational performance has been solid and core cost inputs have become more stable and predictable, we continue to face a dynamic and challenging inflationary environment in some areas,” CEO David Overton commented. “As a result, our profit margins in the quarter reflected higher than anticipated operating expenses particularly in utilities and building maintenance.”
The earnings release noted that the company repurchased 889K shares for $26.7M in the third quarter. The Board of Directors authorized an increase of 5M shares to the existing repurchase program raising the total authorization to 61M shares, according to the release. The board also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.27 per share to be paid on November 28.
Shares of Cheesecake Factory ( CAKE ) fell 10.11% shortly after the print .
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Cheesecake Factory stock crashes more than 10% after surprise quarterly loss