DineEquity Earnings: Here’s Why Investors are Happy Now

DineEquity, Inc. (NYSE:DIN) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, BUT came up short on beating the revenue expectation. The revenue miss is a negative sign to shareholders seeking high growth out of the company. Shares are up 6.69%.

DineEquity, Inc. Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Adjusted Earnings Per Share decreased 8.79% to $0.83 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.91 in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Decreased 34.51% to $158.6 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: DineEquity, Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.83 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.82. It missed the average revenue estimate of $161.87 million.

Quoting Management: “For DineEquity, 2012 was a year of milestones. The year was marked by accomplishing what we set out to do when we acquired Applebee’s, completing the transition to a 99% franchised restaurant system. In addition, we reduced total debt by over $1.0 billion since the acquisition in 2007,” said Julia A. Stewart, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DineEquity, Inc. “We remain steadfast in managing our capital structure with a long-term view to maximize shareholder value. Today’s announcement of our capital allocation strategy reflects our strong free cash flow, solid fundamentals, and less capital intensive business model.”

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