Habit Restaurants Inc (NASDAQ:HABT)
The Habit Restaurants, Inc. (HABT), a fast casual restaurants company yesterday reported fourth quarter and full year 2016 financial results. Habit reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.07 per share which beat same quarter last year earnings of $0.04 per share. Habit reported fourth quarter revenues of $73.9 million which beat same quarter last year numbers of $60.6 million.
The Habit Restaurants, Inc. CEO’s Comments
“Our fourth quarter results included a 21.8% increase in total revenue and our 52nd consecutive quarter of positive comparable restaurant sales. We’re particularly proud of these results as they occurred during a fiercely competitive environment in the restaurant industry. Our growth in the quarter was driven by innovation, new digital marketing campaigns as well as our long-standing strategy of providing a differentiated high-quality fast-casual experience at a tremendous every day value,” said Russ Bendel, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Habit Restaurants, Inc. “We opened 11 new company-operated Habit Burger Grills during the quarter. These openings included three locations in Florida, one in New Jersey, one in Arizona and six locations in California. In addition, we opened two franchise locations, one in Dubai and one in Sharjah. These are our first international locations” Globe Newswire
HABT Technical Analysis
HABT opened trading yesterday at $13.75 which was exactly the same as the previous day’s trading close. HABT closed trading yesterday at $13.80 and spiked up after market to $15.30, equivalent to a 11% increase from the closing price. Taking a look at the daily chart we can see that the last time HABT traded above these levels we have to go all the way back to January 13th, when it traded at highs of $15.52.
Taking a closer look at the daily chart we can see that before the spike up HABT had been in an overall downward trend dating back to December 27th, 2016 when it traded at $17.85. HABT has a float of 17.6 million shares and traded 1.39 times the normal daily trading volume on Thursday.
For trading purposes, I would like to see HABT open trading on Friday above $14.80 and if it does I would be looking to take a long position at the bell. My stop loss would be $0.20 from my entry position fearing anything more than that and the stock would start to fill in the gap up.
Company Profile
The Habit Restaurants, Inc., a holding company, operates fast casual restaurants under The Habit Burger Grill name. It specializes in offering fresh made-to-order char-grilled burgers and sandwiches featuring choice tri-tip steak, grilled chicken, and sushi-grade albacore tuna cooked over an open flame; and prepared salads, as well as a selection of sides, shakes, and malts. As of August 3, 2016, it operated 152 company-operated locations in California, Arizona, Utah, New Jersey, Florida, Idaho, Virginia, Nevada, Washington and Maryland. The Habit Restaurants, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.