By Christiana Sciaudone
Investing.com - We’ve had enough of home cooking.
That’s good news for Bloomin’ Brands, which improved U.S. sales for the second quarter, leading to positive cash flow in June. Shares are up nearly 9%. The stock has more than doubled since hitting a 2020 low in March.
Bloomin’ also reported a second quarter loss per share of 74 cents, less painful than analyst predictions for a loss of $1.13 a share.
As of July 19, 928 company-operated restaurants (approximately 92% of U.S. restaurants) have reopened with limited in-restaurant dining capacity, Chief Executive Officer David Deno said in a statement. More than half are Outback Steakhouse locations, where comparable sales were down almost 11% from the prior year.
Bloomin’ has 286 company-owned locations in hard-hit Florida and Texas, where some local governments implemented a further reduction of in-restaurant capacity. “Although this is a developing situation, to this point these capacity reductions have had a minimal impact on our overall sales trends,” Deno said.
The company has six buy ratings, eight holds and no sells, according to analysts tracked by Investing.com.