TravelCenters of America LLC Earnings: Here’s Why Shares are Down Now

TravelCenters of America LLC (AMEX:TA) had a loss 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 down 1.19%.

TravelCenters of America LLC Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased to $-0.08 in the quarter versus EPS of $-0.09 in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 0.03% to $1.93 billion from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: TravelCenters of America LLC reported adjusted EPS loss of $0.08 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $-0.11. It missed the average revenue estimate of $1.93 billion.

Quoting Management: Thomas M. O’Brien, TA’s CEO, made the following statement regarding the fourth quarter and full year 2012 results of operations and recent activities.“TA furthered its operating and financial flexibility during 2012. At the same time TA was able to increase EBITDAR and net income per share over the prior year by 8% and 14%, respectively. These results were achieved through a combination of a number of factors, including higher fuel margins per gallon and in total, the acquisition of travel centers and businesses, execution of internal growth projects, our ability to take advantage of an opportunity in the capital markets and, above all, the operating excellence demonstrated by over 17,000 employees.”

Key Stats (on next page)…