Bloomin' Brands (NASDAQ: BLMN) reported Q4 EPS of $0.32, $0.03 worse than the analyst estimate of $0.35. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.02 billion versus the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion.

GUIDANCE:

Bloomin' Brands sees FY2020 EPS of $1.85-$1.90, versus the consensus of $1.72.

Strategic Alternatives Review Update

In November 2019, the Company announced that it is exploring and evaluating strategic alternatives that have the potential to maximize value for our shareholders, including but not limited to, a possible sale of the Company. Since then, management has been actively working with the Board of Directors and its financial and legal advisors to review all aspects of the business and available opportunities.

Concurrently, the Company has built a plan that supports a growth-focused, operations centric organization. The pillars of this plan are as follows:

Aligned leadership, resources, and structure to prioritize growth, efficiency, and scale
Simplified corporate support functions to enable a more agile and operations-focused organization
Rebalanced capital allocation policy, including a doubling of the dividend, while maintaining flexibility to pay down debt, repurchase shares and reinvest back in the business

The impact of these collective decisions is as follows:

• Anticipated cost savings representing $40 million over the next two years. We expect approximately $20 million of these savings to be realized in each of 2020 and 2021. The impact of these savings on 2020 results is expected to be $0.17 per share and is outlined in the Fiscal 2020 Financial Outlook section of this release.
• Anticipated 70 to 80 basis points of adjusted operating margin expansion with modest check average increases of approximately 1% in 2020.
• On Tuesday, February 11, 2020, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share to be paid on March 13, 2020 to all stockholders of record as of close of business on February 28, 2020. This dividend doubles the 2019 quarterly dividend of $0.10.

“Over the past few months, we conducted a thorough review of all aspects of the business and the various strategic opportunities available to our Company,” said David Deno, Chief Executive Officer. “We remain committed to evaluating all credible offers that have the potential to drive value. As part of the review, we are implementing transformational initiatives to enhance Company performance. We believe these actions, combined with our continued sales momentum, position us for growth and better allow us to capture the opportunities in 2020 and beyond.”

More detail on these initiatives and an update on the strategic alternatives review will be discussed during this morning’s scheduled earnings conference call. Please see the Conference Call section of this release for more information on how to access this call.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Bloomin' Brands (BLMN) click here.