Michael F. Mravle
Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question
Thanks Charlie, lets now review our quarterly results for the 13 week period ended March 26, 2016. Total revenues increased 16% to $22.1 million for the first quarter of 2016 from $19 million in the first quarter last year. Given that the Wingstock system is overwhelmingly franchised, most of our revenues are made up of royalties and franchise fees and they increased 21% to $13.5 million for the first quarter compared to $11.2 million in last year’s first quarter. As Charlie stated there were 28 net new restaurant openings during the first quarter, all franchise locations, bringing our quarter-end total to 873 total system-wide restaurants. This represented a unit growth rate of approximately 17%. In addition to restaurant development, revenue growth was also driven by domestic same store sales growth of 4.6% in the first quarter. Our company-owned restaurant revenue increased to $8.6 million from $7.9 million in the prior year, driven entirely by 9% growth in same store sales. Cost of sales increased 5.9% to $6.1 million from $5.7 million in the prior fiscal year’s first quarter. As a percentage of company-owned restaurant sales, cost of sales decreased 210 basis points to 70.8% from 72.9%. The decrease was primarily due to the leveraging of fixed costs as the company-owned same store sales increased 9% and a 1.5% decrease in commodities rate for bone-in chicken wings as compared to the prior year period. Selling, general, and administrative expenses remained flat at $7.7 million as compared to the prior year comparable period. This year’s first quarter include $450,000 of transaction costs related to the March 2016 secondary offering, whereas last year’s SG&A included $1.3 million of expenses associated with our preparation to be a public company. The decrease in non-recurring costs was offset primarily by increases related to head count additions and other recurring costs associated with being a public company. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, increased 24% to $8.9 million from $7.2 million last year. Please review the reconciliation table provided in our earnings release between adjusted EBITDA and net income, it’s most directly comparable GAAP measure. For the quarter, income tax expense was $2.5 million. Our effective tax rate was 37.3% compared to 38.2% in the comparable period in the prior year. This is consistent with our expectation of an effective tax rate between 37% and 38% in 2016. Net income increased to $4.3 million or $0.15 per diluted share compared to net income of $2.6 million or $0.10 per diluted share in the same quarter last year. Weighted average diluted shares outstanding were approximately $29 million for the first quarter of 2016 and approximately $26.6 million for the prior year period. Adjusted net income, a non-GAAP measure, increased 33.2% to $4.6 million or $0.16 per pro forma diluted share compared to $3.4 million or $0.12 per pro forma diluted share last year. Please review the reconciliation table provided in our earnings release between adjusted net income and net income and pro forma diluted shares to diluted shares, to most directly comparable GAAP measures. In terms of our liquidity and balance sheet as of March 26, 2016, we had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $8.3 million and outstanding debt of $85.5 million. During the first quarter we made a voluntary prepayment on our term loan of $10 million. Note that we do not have a required principle payment on our current term loan until 2020. On a trailing 12-month basis, our net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio was approximately 2.5 times. Given our traction to date we are pleased to be raising several key metrics as it relates to the annual guidance for 2016. Specifically, we are raising our range for total revenues to be between $89 million and $90 million. This represents 14.1% to 15.4% growth over 2015. We are maintaining our forecast of 125 to 135 net new system-wide restaurant openings, representing approximately 15% annual unit growth. Included in this range is one additional corporate restaurant that should open in the second or third fiscal quarter. Consistent with our long term guidance, domestic same store sales growth of low-single digits, SG&A expenses are projected between $33 million and $34 million inclusive of approximately $1.3 million of stock-based compensation expense, $0.9 million of expenses associated with our franchise convention, $0.8 million of expenses associated with the 53rd week, $0.8 million of incremental ongoing public company costs, and $0.5 million of transaction costs related to the March 2016 secondary stock offering. Adjusted EBITDA is now anticipated to be approximately $33.5 million, up from $33 million, representing 16% growth over 2015. Pro forma adjusted fully diluted EPS has been raised to approximately $0.57 per share from $0.55 per share. And finally fully diluted share count should be approximately 29 million shares which is unchanged from prior guidance. Before I turn the call back to Charlie I would like to provide a few additional comments for modeling purposes. Fiscal year 2016 includes a 53rd week and all the guidance just provided includes the 53rd week impact. For context, the impact of the 53rd week is estimated to contribute approximately $1.4 million of revenue and $0.3 million of adjusted EBITDA. Secondly, we hosted our franchisee convention in April which is held every 18 months. There was a net zero impact of profit dollars from this event but we will have expenses associated with the convention of approximately $0.9 million in SG&A in the second quarter with offsetting revenue from support we received to fund the convention. Lastly, I want to provide some incremental color on same store sales. As we look at the cadence of quarterly counts for the balance of the year we reviewed both two and three year stat counts. In the second quarter of 2016 we will be lapping two year comps that were significantly higher than any other quarter in 2015. A strong performance in the prior year was partially due to the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. As we overlapped those strong result we would anticipate our same store sales in the second quarter to be somewhat impacted against our incoming trend. And now I will turn the call back over to Charlie for closing remarks before we begin Q&A.