Tonya Robinson - Texas Roadhouse, Inc.
Analyst
Thanks Kent, and good evening everyone. For the third quarter of 2016, net income increased 24.9% over the prior year period to $25.7 million or $0.36 per diluted share. Revenue growth of 9.9% during the quarter was driven by a 7.6% increase in store weeks and a 2.5% increase in average unit volume. For the quarter, comparable restaurant sales increased 3.4% comprised of 2% traffic growth and a 1.4% increase in average check. Comps during the third quarter were positively impacted by approximately 40 basis points due to the shift of the July 4 holiday. By month, comparable sales increased 3.7%, 3.3%, and 3.1% for our July, August, and September periods respectively. As Kent mentioned, comp sales for the first four weeks of the fourth quarter were up approximately 3.8%. Restaurant margin as a percentage of sales was up 155 basis points over the prior year period to 18.1%, driven by improvement in cost of sales. For the quarter, food cost deflation was approximately 4.2% driven by beef, bringing the year-to-date deflation to approximately 4.1%. Partially offsetting the cost of sales decrease was a 65 basis point increase in labor as a percentage of sales, driven by wage rate inflation along with higher turnover. Below restaurant margin, depreciation expense increased $3.1 million year-over-year to $20.9 million or by 27 basis points to 4.3% of revenue. G&A costs were up $4.2 million in the quarter and included a $1.2 million charge related to a legal settlement that we discussed earlier this year. As a result, G&A costs increased 43 basis points as a percentage of revenue to 5.4% for the third quarter. Pre-opening costs decreased 0.7 million on a year-over-year basis, primarily due to fewer restaurant openings this quarter compared to the prior year period. Moving to the balance sheet and cash flow, we ended the quarter with $82 million in cash and $53 million in debt. During the quarter, we generated $46 million in cash flow from operations, incurred capital expenditures of $44 million, and paid dividends of $13 million. As a result, our cash balance decreased $14 million during the quarter. For the full year 2016 we now expect commodity deflation of approximately 3.5%. We currently have prices locked for approximately 75% of our commodity basket for the remainder of the year. A few housekeeping notes as we finish out 2016. We expect December sales to be negatively impacted by a point to a point-and-a-half due to the Christmas holiday shifting from a Thursday- Friday last year to a Saturday-Sunday this year. In addition, we will be lapping approximately $1.5 million of credits reported in the fourth quarter of last year related to labor costs, specifically health insurance and payroll taxes. Looking ahead to 2017, in addition to approximately 30 company restaurant openings and low-single digit food cost deflation, we expect mid-single digit labor inflation, including increases from wage rates as well as from regulatory changes related to overtime pay. Our initial expectations for the year also include an income tax rate of 30% to 31% and capital expenditures of approximately $170 million. Now I'll turn the call over to Scott for final comments.