Why Brinker International Stock Jumped 14.5% on Wednesday

Restaurant chain owner Brinker International (NYSE: EAT) reported solid fourth-quarter results early Wednesday morning, sending the stock sharply higher. Brinker's shares closed the trading session 14.5% higher.

Brinker's fourth-quarter sales fell 32% year over year to $563 million. The bottom line swung from earnings of $1.36 per share to a net loss of $0.88 per share. It was a mixed performance in comparison to Wall Street's expectations. Your average analyst had been looking for a net loss near $1.43 per share on sales in the neighborhood of $574 million.

Looking ahead, the parent company behind Chili's and Maggiano's Little Italy set its bottom-line target for the first quarter at a net loss of approximately $0.32 per share with comparable restaurant sales (comps) falling by "low to mid-teens" percentages against the year-ago period. The current analyst consensus called for larger losses of roughly $0.60 per share.

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Source Fool.com