Buffalo Wild Wings Q2 Profit Rises

(RTTNews) - Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. (BWLD), Tuesday said its profit for the second quarter jumped over 41 percent as revenues grew a near 28 percent on additional store openings with lower chicken wing prices and reduced expenses.

Buffalo Wild Wings second-quarter net earnings surged 41.4 percent to $16.5 million to $11.7 million in the prior-year quarter. On a per share basis, earnings grew 41.9 percent to $0.88 from $0.62 a year ago.

On average, twenty-five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.79 per share for the quarter. Analysts estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Commenting on the results, Sally Smith, President & CEO, observed, ""We managed our controllable expenses and saw the cost per pound of traditional wings decline compared to last year, which benefited cost of sales. Strong sales growth and lower costs and expenses as a percent of revenue produced impressive net earnings growth of 41.4% and earnings per diluted share of $0.88."

Total revenue for the quarter increased 27.8 percent to $305.0 million from $238.7 million in the similar quarter last year. Twenty analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $304.24 million for the quarter.

Same-store sales increased 3.8 percent at company-owned restaurants and franchised restaurants registering same-store sales increase of 4.1 percent.

Company-owned restaurant sales for the quarter increased 29.4 percent to $285.4 million from a year ago, due mainly to company-owned same-store sales increase and 77 additional company-owned restaurants at the end of second quarter 2013, from last year.

Looking ahead, Smith, said, "We remain confident we will achieve 17% net earnings growth for 2013, equating to 25% on a 52-week basis."

Buffalo Wild Wings closed tuesday's regular trade at $97.69, down $0.70 or 0.71%, on a volume of 1.21 million shares on the Nasdaq. In after-hours, the stock further dropped $1.89 or 1.93%, at $95.80.