Playoffs and World Cup boost Buffalo Wild Wings; outlook disappoints Wall Street

A quarter full of big sports events led to better-than-expected financial results for Buffalo Wild Wings Inc., but a cautious outlook for 2014 spooked investors.

The Golden Valley-based restaurant chain on Tuesday reported a second-quarter profit of $23.7 million(1.25 a share), compared to $16.5 million (88 cents a share) a year earlier. Revenue climbed 20 percent to $366 million, and the closely watched retail metric of same-store sales rose 7.7 percent at company-owned locations and 6.5 percent at franchisees.

Analysts had projected earnings of $1.20 a share on sales of $360 million.

Buffalo Wild Wings benefitted from better margins as wing prices stayed low, and from a quarter that saw plenty of big sports events, a key driver for getting people into the restaurants to watch the games.

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