雅虎香港財經 Bear of the Day: Noodles & Co. (NDLS)
Noodles & Company NDLS had a tough 2023 as sales slowed. This Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) is expected to see negative earnings in 2024 as it tries a menu reboot.
Noodles & Company operates 470 restaurants across the United States serving noodle dishes from Wisconsin Mac & Cheese to better-for-you Zoodles.
A Miss in the Fourth Quarter of 2023
On Mar 7, Noodles & Company reported fourth quarter and fiscal year 2023 results and missed on earnings by $0.06. Earnings were a loss of $0.07 compared to the Zacks Consensus which was looking for a loss of $0.01.
Comparable restaurant sales fell 4.2% system-wide in the fourth quarter, including a 4.3% decrease for company-owned restaurants and a 3.6% decrease for franchise restaurants. Comparable sales are a key restaurant metric.
Revenue fell 8.9% to $124.3 million from $136.5 million a year ago, however, the prior year had a 53rd week in the fourth quarter. Adjusting for that extra week, revenue fell just $3.1 million, or 2.4%.
For the full year, 18 new company-owned restaurants opened and 6 closed. At the end of 2023, Noodles & Company had 380 company-owned and 90 franchise restaurants.
The company plans several initiatives to turn it around in 2024 including a multi-phase menu transformation and leveraging its digital capabilities including the Noodles app and rewards program.
New CEO Announced
On Mar 7, 2024, Noodles & Company also announced that Drew Madsen, who had been interim CEO, would become permanent CEO effective Mar 6, 2024. He would also continue to be a member of the Board of Directors.
He had been interim CEO as of Nov 2023 and a board member since Sep 2017.
Earnings Estimates Cut for 2024
Noodles & Company is looking for 2024 comparable restaurant sales growth of flat to +3%.
The analysts, however, are bearish on earnings growth. 2 estimates have been cut in the last 30 days for 2024, with 1 cut in the last week.
The 2024 Zacks Consensus Estimate has fallen to a loss of $0.30 from a loss of $0.12 in the last 30 days. This is an earnings decline of 172.7% as the company lost $0.11 last year.
Here's what it looks like on the price and consensus chart.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Shares Plunge
Shares of Noodles & Company have fallen over the last year and are now trading under $2.00. It has a market cap of just $81 million.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
As of Jan 2, 2024, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $3 million and outstanding debt of $82.2 million. As of Jan 2, 2024, it had $39.9 million available for future borrowings under its revolving credit facility.
For investors interested in the restaurant stocks, you might want to wait until the initiatives are put into place and the earnings start to turn around before jumping in.
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Noodles & Company (NDLS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
