Chili's Owner Brinker Reports Upbeat Sales Outlook

Brinker International Inc. projected sales growth at established restaurants for its new fiscal year that beat expectations, lifting the stock of the casual-dining company.

The Dallas company's shares, down 20% in the past 12 months, rose 6.9% to $48.30 in recent after-hours trading Wednesday.

Brinker issued the outlook ahead of its investor day scheduled for Thursday.

The company projected same-restaurant sales to grow between 0.5% and 2% for the fiscal year ending in June 2017. Analysts expected same-restaurant sales growth of 0.7%, according to FactSet.

"We are encouraged by the quarter-to-date progress of our brands," Chief Executive Wyman Roberts said in prepared remarks. "We look forward to discussing a number of initiatives designed to build on this progress and continue momentum into fiscal 2017 and beyond."

For the current quarter through June 2, Brinker said sales at established company-owned stores fell 2%, including a 2% drop at Chili's and a 1.5% decline at Maggiano's. Still that marks an improvement of 1.6 percentage points from the previous quarter, the company stated.

During April, Brinker had reported its profit dropped 12% for the quarter ended in March, as sales at established stores were dented by a decline in customer traffic and margins tightened.

Brinker on Tuesday also projected adjusted per-share earnings of $3.40 to $3.50 for the coming fiscal year, while analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of $3.47.

Write to Tess Stynes at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 08, 2016 18:25 ET (22:25 GMT)

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