Domino's (DPZ) Q2 Earnings Top, Stock Down On Revenue Miss

Domino's Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ) reported mixed second-quarter 2019 financial numbers, wherein earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate but revenues missed the same. Notably, this marked the company’s fifth straight quarter of revenue miss.

Moreover, shares of the company declined 8.7% on Jul 16 owing to lower-than-expected top-line performance. Year to date, the stock has decreased 0.6% against the industry’s 26.6% growth.

Adjusted earnings came in at $2.19 per share, which outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.00. The metric also increased 19% on a year-over-year basis. The bottom-line improvement was driven by higher net income and lower diluted share count as a result of share repurchases.

Quarterly revenues improved 4.1% year over year to $811.6 million but missed the consensus mark of $833 million. Higher supply chain volume, robust same-store sales and increase in-store count both in the United States and international markets drove the company’s revenues. International franchise revenues also increased but were marginally overshadowed by foreign currency headwinds.

However, the company-owned store revenues declined in the quarter due to the sale of 59 U.S. company-owned stores to existing U.S. franchisees.

Comps

Global retail sales (including total sales of franchise and company-owned units) rose 5.1% year over year. This compared unfavorably with 12.6% growth in the year-ago quarter. The uptick can be attributed to solid comps at international stores (up 3.5%) and domestic stores (up 6.8%). Excluding foreign currency impact, global retail sales increased 8.4%.

In the second quarter, comps at Domino’s domestic stores (including company-owned and franchise stores) improved 3%. This compared unfavorably with a 6.9% increase in the year-ago quarter.

At domestic company-owned stores, Domino’s comps grew 2.1% year over year, lower than 5.1% registered in the year-ago quarter. Also, domestic franchise stores comps increased 3.1% compared with 7% in second-quarter 2018.

Comps at international stores, excluding foreign currency translation, were up 2.4%. This was comparatively lower than 4% increase recorded in the year-ago quarter.

Notably, the second quarter marked the 33rd consecutive quarter of positive U.S. comparable sales and the 102nd consecutive quarter of positive international comps.

Domino's Pizza Inc Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Margins

Domino’s operating margin expanded 130 basis points (bps) year over year to 39% in the reported quarter. Operating margin expansion was driven by rise in supply chain margin owing to the positive impact of procurement savings as well as lower insurance costs. Moreover, the net income margin expanded 150 bps to 11.4%. Company-owned store margins inched up 0.6%.

Balance Sheet

As of Jun 16, 2019, cash and cash equivalents totaled $108.3 million, up from $25.4 million as of Dec 30, 2018. Long-term debt at the end of the second quarter was $3,415 million, down from $3,495.7 million as of Dec 30, 2018. Inventory amounted to $44.3 million at the end of the second quarter.

Cash flows from operating activities summed $201.6 million as of Jun 16, 2019. In the quarter under review, Domino’s has spent $25.7 million on capital expenditures.

Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

Domino’s carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). A few other top-ranked stocks in the same space include The Habit Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:HABT) , Papa John's International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) and Denny's Corporation (NASDAQ:DENN) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Habit Restaurants and Papa John's has an impressive long-term earnings growth rate of 20% and 12.5%, respectively.

Shares of Denny's have gained 25.5% in the past three months.

Today's Best Stocks from Zacks

Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2018, while the S&P 500 gained +15.8%, five of our screens returned +38.0%, +61.3%, +61.6%, +68.1%, and +98.3%.

This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 – 2018, while the S&P averaged +4.8% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +56.2% per year.

See their latest picks free >>