Services

Dave & Buster's Isn't Playing Around With Updated Guidance

Chris Lange

Published: January 8, 2018 11:50 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 4:43 am

Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: PLAY) saw its shares get shredded in Monday’s session after the company provided an update on its fiscal full-year guidance. The company already had alluded that it had a slow start to its fourth quarter, but it seems that things have only gotten worse from there.

Steve King, CEO of Dave & Buster’s, commented:

As indicated on our fiscal third quarter conference call, we had a slower-than-expected start to the fourth quarter. We expected sales to improve during our seasonally strong weeks in December but instead trends softened further leading us to update our financial outlook for fiscal year 2017.

In terms of the quarter-to-date numbers, comparable store sales were down 5.1%. Based on the quarter-to-date performance, the company expects fiscal 2017 total revenue to be in the range of $1.138 billion to $1.142 billion, versus prior guidance of $1.148 billion to $1.155 billion. Also, comparable store sales (on a 52-week basis) are expected to be in the range of −1.0% to −0.7%, compared to the previous 0.0% to 0.7%.

As for the full year numbers, net income is now expected to be between $108 million and $110 million, versus prior guidance of $110 million to $112 million. EBITDA for fiscal 2017 is expected to be in the range of $265 million to $268 million, compared to prior guidance of $268 million to $272 million.

The consensus estimates call for $2.67 in EPS and $1.15 billion in revenue for the fiscal full year.

King added:

Meanwhile, our new stores continue to perform very well. Opening new stores with outstanding returns remains a key priority and we are maintaining our plan to open fourteen to fifteen new stores in fiscal 2018. With their first year now completed, we are pleased to report year-one cash on cash returns of approximately 54% for our 2016 class of stores, exceeding returns for our very successful 2014 and 2015 classes of stores.

Shares of Dave & Buster’s were down about 19% at $45.62 on Monday, with a consensus analyst price target of $74.61 and a 52-week range of $45.56 to $73.48.