Red Robin’s quarterly loss widens more than expected as Coronavirus weighs on performance

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (NASDAQ: RRGB) announced its loss to have widened more than expected in the first quarter on Wednesday. Shares of the company were reported about 7% down in premarket trading due to the downbeat financial results. The company attributed the decline to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic that pushed its casual dining restaurants into temporarily shutting down in recent months.

At £11.90 per share, Red Robin is currently more than 50% down year to date in the stock market after recovering from a low of £4.06 per share in March. Learn more about how do people make money on the stock market.

The Greenwood Village-headquartered company posted a £136.50 million loss in Q1 that translates to £10.58 per share. In the same quarter last year, Red Robin had recorded £0.47 million income (3.92 pence per share). Earlier this year in February, activist investor Vintage Capital Management blasted Red Robin for lack of transparency.

Red Robin sees multiple charges in Q1

Excluding charges, the American chain of casual dining restaurants registered £5.22 of adjusted loss per share that came in significantly greater than the FactSet’s estimate of £1.05 per share.

Red Robin saw multiples charges in Q1 including £4.29 for goodwill impairment, 69.70 pence for restaurant asset impairment, 20.36 pence for litigation contingencies, 6.27 pence for costs associated with board and stockholder matters, another 6.27 pence for expenses related to refranchising and restaurant closure, 3.92 pence for costs ascribed to executive transition and severance, and 0.78 pence for the pandemic related charges.

In terms of revenue, Red Robin printed £239.73 million in the first quarter that marginally topped analysts’ forecast of £239.65 million and represented a 25.3% year over year increase. Comparable restaurant sales registered a 20.8% decline in the recent quarter. Sales, however, were reported recovering in Q2.

Red Robin concludes Q1 with £69.62 million in cash

Red Robin said in its report on Wednesday that roughly 270 of its dining rooms primarily located on the West Coast have now been reopened to the public with revised and stricter safety protocols. The U.S. company boasted to have concluded the quarter with £69.62 million in cash and £227.82 million of debt. According to CEO Paul J.B. Murphy:

“Sales are exceeding our expectations, accompanied by record-high dine-in Guest satisfaction scores and continued, strong retention of our elevated off-premise sales.”

Red Robin performed fairly upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual increase of roughly 20%. At the time of writing, it has a market cap of £153.14 million.