P.F. Chang's Serves Up Strong Earnings
P.F. Chang's China Bistro (PFCB Quote) shares were set ablaze after the restaurant operator bumped up its profit outlook by more than one-third.
Excluding an 8-cent impairment charge from its standalone Taneko Japanese Tavern, the company now expects to make between 32 cents and 34 cents a share. That's sharply higher than the company's prior guidance and the Wall Street consensus, each of which projected 23 cents a share. The Scottsdale, Ariz., company attributes most of this to higher-than-expected revenue which, as announced last week, jumped 16.1% from a year earlier to $292.6 million. In October, sales were pegged at just $285.6 million. Also cited was a "better-than-expected claims development" that resulted in "favorable" adjustments in group medical and workers' comp adjustments. P.F. Chang's shares closed up $2.55, or 11.7%, to $24.36. That came as another casual-dining chain, IHOP (IHP Quote), took a 2.7% slide after saying that its new Applebee's acquisition has yielded slouching same-store sales, or sales from locations that have been open for a year or more. Even as IHOP's total comps climbed 3.7% year over year in the fourth quarter and 2.2% in all of 2007, for Applebee's that figure slipped by 2.9% and 2.1% in those respective periods. IHOP restaurant traffic, furthermore, has been on the decline, so the positive same-store sales numbers were due to a higher average dollar amount for customer checks. IHOP shares finished down $1.24 to $44.96.- Loading Comments...
- Loading Comments...
Featured Photo Galleries
| Dow Jones | S&P 500 | NASDAQ | 10-Year Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,246.97 | 1,093.01 | 2,151.08 | 34.82 |
Oil *
77.27
|
|
UP
20.03
|
DOWN
0.06
|
DOWN
2.98
|
DOWN
0.04
|
10 Yr
3.48%
SPDR Gold
108.39
|
|
+0.20%
|
-0.01%
|
-0.14%
|
-0.11%
|
Data delayed 20 minutes |














