Customers arrive at a Cava restaurant in New York City on June 22, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Cava raised its full-year outlook on Thursday as its restaurants reported strong customer traffic, resulting in better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue.
The company’s shares rose 9 percent in prolonged trading. The stock has greater than doubled in value this yr, giving Cava’s market capitalization around $11.6 billion as of Thursday’s close.
Here’s what the corporate reported for the quarter ended July 14 in comparison with Wall Street expectations, based on an analyst survey conducted by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 17 cents versus 13 cents expected
- Revenue: $233 million versus $220 million expected
The Mediterranean restaurant chain reported net income of $19.7 million, or 17 cents per share, for the second fiscal quarter, up from $6.5 million, or 21 cents per share, a yr earlier.
Net sales rose 35% to $233 million. The company’s comparable-store sales rose 14.4%, beating StreetAccount estimates of seven.9%.
While many other restaurant chains are reporting declining traffic as consumers spend less, Cava’s visits increased 9.5 percent throughout the quarter. Brett Schulman, CEO and co-founder of Cava, cited the chain’s recent grilled steak option as one reason customers continued to return to the restaurants throughout the quarter.
Cava opened a net 18 recent locations throughout the quarter, bringing its total restaurant count to 341.
For fiscal 2024, Cava now expects existing store sales growth of 8.5% to 9.5%, up from the previous range of 4.5% to six.5%. The company also expects to open 54 to 57 recent locations this yr, up from the previous forecast of fifty to 54 restaurants.
Cava also expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $109 million to $114 million. The company had previously forecast adjusted EBITDA of $100 million to $105 million for the fiscal yr.
