Brinker International Reports 35% Increase in First Quarter Fiscal 2006 EPS

Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE: EAT) reported net income of $31.8 million, or $0.36 diluted earnings per share, for the company's first quarter ended Sept. 28, 2005. Exclusive of certain special items, diluted earnings per share increased 35 percent to $0.50. For the same quarter of fiscal 2005, the company reported net income of $13.9 million, or $0.15 diluted earnings per share. Excluding special items, fiscal 2005 first quarter diluted earnings per share were $0.37. A reconciliation of reported net income to net income before special items is included in Table 2 below.

Doug Brooks, Brinker's Chairman and CEO, said, "The effectiveness of Chili's marketing and operating initiatives, paired with strong brand equity and a competitive value proposition, continue to drive excellent sales performance."

Highlights for the quarter include:

• Declaration of the company's first quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share, payable in December.
• Quarterly comparable store sales at Chili's of 6.1 percent.
• 44 new store openings.
• The company continues to be active in its share repurchase program, purchasing 3.6 million shares during the quarter.

Revenue Growth
Brinker reported revenues for the 13-week period of $975.9 million, an increase of 12.0 percent compared with $871.0 million reported for the same period of fiscal 2005(1). These revenue gains were primarily driven by a 3.7 percent increase in comparable store sales (see Table 1) and restaurant capacity growth of 7.1 percent. The company and its franchisees opened 44 restaurants in the first quarter.



Logos, product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Reader Comments:

Be the first to leave a comment for this article

Tweet