Dave & Buster's shares fall nearly 7% after same-store sales miss marks
Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc. shares fell nearly 7% late Tuesday after the company reported quarterly earnings above expectations but disappointed Wall Street with a steeper-than-expected decline in comparable-store sales. Dave & Buster's said it earned $35.6 million, or 85 cents a share, in the fourth quarter 2017, compared with net income of $27.4 million, or 63 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding net tax benefits, the company earned $25.6 million, or 61 cents a share, in the quarter. Sales rose 13% to $304.9 million, compared with $270.2 million a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected GAAP earnings of 61 cents a share on sales of $305 million. Comparable-store sales fell 5.9%, versus a 3.2% increase in the year-ago quarter. The analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected comparable-store sales to fall 5.1%. Dave & Buster's said the drop was driven by a 6.4% decrease in walk-in sales and a 2.9% decrease in special events sales. The company said it expects fiscal 2018 sales of $1.20 billion to $1.24 billion, net income between $95 million and $110 million, and a comparable-store sales decrease in the low-to-mid single digits for the year. The shares had ended the regular trading day up 1.5%.
