Noodles and Company Reports Q4 Earnings, Shares Down 7%

Noodles and Co.

reported its fourth-quarter earnings this afternoon, Wednesday, February 26, 2014, shares of the food company plummeted after the company released its earnings; shares fell due to earnings coming short of what was expected. Shares are currently down $2.80 or 7.08 percent in after-hours trading; this was despite an original gain of $2.90 or 7.91 percent which brings the company's share price to $36.75 per share. Below are some key metrics for this not only this quarter but guidance for the next quarters as well: • Noodles and Company reported a profit of $0.11 per share; this was a penny below what analysts' had originally expected. • Aggregate revenue increased 17.4 percent to $91.5 million for the fourth quarter; analysts' had expected fourth-quarter to be $92.5 million. • Basically the only good news was that same-store sales growth was about 4.3 percent. Kevin Reddy the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said this about ths quarter's performance, “We're pleased to have maintained our operating momentum in the fourth quarter with our 18th straight quarter of comparable restaurant sales growth and a 66% increase in our adjusted net income for the quarter.” He also added with this, “Looking ahead to 2014, we have faced an unusual amount of severe winter weather during the first quarter to date. Nearly 80% of our restaurants are located in areas severely impacted by atypical weather, including the Mid-Atlantic, Upper Midwest and Rocky Mountain West. In fact, over 30% of our operating days thus far have seen either measurable precipitation or temperatures at least twenty degrees below normal. As a result, in the first quarter we anticipate a roughly 300 to 350 bps negative impact to revenue and $0.03 impact to diluted earnings per share. Still, we remain confident that we can deliver on our 25% annual adjusted diluted earnings per share growth goal for 2014.” As for future guidance the company, is looking to open 42 to 50 new corporate owned restaurants, 10 to 15 new franchise units to open, and total revenue to be between $406 to $412 million.