Investing.com -- Shares in Dave & Buster`s Entertainment (O:PLAY) surged more than 6% in after-hours trading after the arcade and restaurant chain eclipsed analysts' forecasts with its revenue and earnings during the third quarter of 2015.
Over the company's third quarter, which ended in early-November, Dave & Busters saw its total revenues soar by nearly 18% to $192.8 million on the back of comparable store sales gains of 8.8% for the period. As a result, the restaurant's adjusted EBITDA jumped by more than 40% to $34.5 million, while its adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue increased by nearly 300 basis points to 17.9%.
Following a loss of $2.2 million or 0.13 per share in the same quarter last year, Dave and Busters' earnings swung to a gain of $4.6 million or 0.11 per share in the third quarter of 2015. Analysts expected the restaurant chain to finish with revenues of $185 million or 0.03 per share for the period.
"Dave & Buster's is experiencing a phenomenal year of record results and we are very pleased to be increasing our annual guidance for the third consecutive time. Quarterly comparable store sales rose 8.8%, inclusive of an estimated negative 110 basis point Halloween calendar shift, and despite lapping an 8.7% gain from the prior year," Dave & Buster's CEO Steve King said in a statement.
"We have now marked the 14th quarter in a row that we have exceeded the competitive industry benchmark while on a two-year stacked basis comparable trends of 17.5% were also higher sequentially than the previous two quarters of 16.7% and 14.6%, respectively."
King is also optimistic that a recently signed master development agreement for seven new stores in the Middle East could bolster revenues on a longer-term basis. King is hopeful that the chain, which currently operates 79 restaurants in North America, can expand to at least 200 throughout the continent, as revenues continue to swell. Moving forward, Dave & Buster's is set to open eight to nine new restaurants for the fiscal year as a whole, along with nine to 10 new stores in 2016.
Shares in Dave & Buster's gained 2.61 or 6.62% in the after-hours session to 42.01.