Silver Lining: Panera Bread is Rising
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the food industry is cooked.
This is where bakery-café operator Panera Bread (PNRA) comes in. Just check out it’s well-done fourth quarter.
In the period ended December 30, the Missouri-based company reported earnings of $0.84 a share, but made it clear that the number included $0.03 in charges. In short, this was good news, as it was a nice jump from the $0.56 per share it put up in the same period last year.
Of course, this most recent quarter also included an extra week of sales. But no matter how you slice it, I think the bottom-line EPS number was sweet. After all, the Street was at $0.84. Furthermore, revenues came in at $357.8 million, which was an eye-catcher: The Street was at $352.9 million.
Finally, (and I think this was largely glossed over), system-wide comps were up 2.7%. In this environment, that says something.
Just as food for thought (if you know what I mean), Starbucks (SBUX) is coming off a quarter where it saw its comps drop 9%.
What about the future?
In the release, the company indicated that its targeting $0.53 to $0.59 for the first quarter. And that’s good news; the estimate I’m seeing is for $0.56.
The following sentence from the release definitely caught my eye: “The Company [reaffirmed] its earnings per diluted share target for full year 2009 at $2.55 to $2.71 per diluted share, compared to earnings per diluted share of $2.22 in full year 2008.”
That seems essentially in line with the $2.61 a share I’m seeing, and is consistent with what Panera said back in October in conjunction with its third-quarter release.
The bottom line here is that the company turned in a good quarter and offered up a decent outlook in spite of this lousy economy.
Have a great weekend!
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