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Panera (PNRA) Posts 16% Jump in Q4 Sales, 6% Rise in Net Income

February 7, 2012 5:49 PM EST
PNRA Hot Sheet
Revenue Growth %: -100.0%

Financial Fact:
Pre-opening expenses: 1.61M

Today's EPS Names:
TARO, BRLI, TLB, More
Panera (Nasdaq: PNRA) investors are taking profits Tuesday afternoon amid inline quarterly earnings and raised 2012 guidance. After closing at $160.02, shares of Panera last traded at $156.13.

The restaurant and bakery operator reported fourth-quarter revenue of $495.765 million, up nearly 16 percent from the same quarter in 2010. Analysts on the Street were looking for sales of $499.03 million. Same-store sales at company-owned locations rose 5.9 percent, franchise comparable sales were up 3.2 percent, and company-wide comps were up 4.4 percent year over year.

Net income was up almost 6 percent from $36.52 million in the year-ago quarter to $38.62 million. GAAP profit per share came to $1.31, up from $1.21 in 2010's fourth quarter. Pro-forma earnings were $1.42 per share, right inline with the Street estimate.

CEO Bill Moreton said, "As we close our fourth consecutive year of 24% plus EPS growth and look forward to another strong year in 2012, we continue to feel very good about our strategy of investing consistently in the quality of our concept and customer experience to drive competitive differentiation over the medium and long term. We have seen these investments manifest themselves in our strong, consistent comp store sales growth and our record-setting new unit volumes over a multi-year period. Additionally, we are very pleased that we have also been able to deploy a meaningful amount of our excess cash -- $400 million over the last year and a half -- to drive earnings growth and shareholder returns. We look forward to another strong year in 2012 with our EPS growth currently targeted at the high end of our long-term target range of 15-20%."

Panera is expecting first-quarter earnings of $1.33-$1.35 per share, which compares to the analyst consensus estimate of $1.28 per share.

The company lifted its FY12 EPS outlook from $5.38-$5.48 to $5.50-$5.55, versus the Street estimate of $5.52.


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