Dave & Buster’s stock fell more than 17% on Monday morning after the company said its same-store sales have been weaker than expected so far in the current quarter.
The Dallas-based food and games chain said its same-store sales in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ends Feb. 4, were down 5.1% through Jan. 6.
In early December, the company had indicated that same-store sales were slower in the current quarter, but executives expected those results to improve during the holidays. That didn’t happen.
Instead, sales got worse.
“We expected sales to improve during our seasonally strong weeks in December, but instead trends softened further,” CEO Steve King said in a statement.
The results stand in contrast to a handful of results some companies preannounced on Monday, in anticipation of the ICR investors conference in Orlando, Fla. The chicken wing chain Wingstop, for instance, said its domestic same-store sales in the quarter ended Dec. 30 increased 5.2%. Same-store sales at Denny’s increased 2.2%.
Dave & Buster’s, which operates more than 100 combination arcade/casual-dining restaurants, expects revenue in the current fiscal year to be in the range of $1.138 billion to $1.142 billion, down from its previous stated expectations of $1.148 billion to $1.155 billion.
Same-store sales for the full year are now expected to fall between 1% and 0.7%, rather than an increase of flat to up 0.75%.
The company also expects net income to be between $108 million and $110 million, down from previous guidance of $110 million to $112 million.
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