CHARLOTTE: Southeastern chicken restaurant chain Bojangles’ Inc. on Wednesday boosted its outlook for the year again, as revenue and profit grew in its third quarter.
Shares jumped 7.4% in after-hours trading.
The Charlotte, N.C., company said it is now expecting revenue of $486 million to $488 million, up from its previous guidance of $483.5 million to $487.5 million.
It expects pro-forma earnings of 79 cents to 81 cents a share, compared with its previous guidance of 75 cents to 78 cents a share.
Bojangles’, known as Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits, went public in May with an initial public offering price of $19 a share. The company’s stock opened at $26.55 and set a high of $28.45 six days later. On Wednesday, the company’s shares closed at $17.92 a share after tumbling 27% in the past three months.
For the period ended Sept. 27, Bojangles’ continued to log sales growth at existing restaurants.
Sales at restaurants open for at least 15 months, a closely watched industry metric, rose 4.1%, beating the 3.4% growth analysts had forecast, according to Consensus Metrix. The company has logged 22 straight quarters of growth in the metric.
In all, company reported a profit of $8.91 million, or 24 a share, up from $6.99 million, or 19 cents a share, a year earlier.
On a pro-forma basis, per-share earnings were 23 cents. Analysts had forecast 18 cents a share in earnings.
Revenue grew 13% to $124.3 million, topping the $122.2 million in revenue analysts had forecast.
Bojangles’ said revenue for the quarter was helped by having 46 more restaurants compared with the year-earlier period.
