Shares of Del Taco Restaurants Inc. (Nasdaq: TACO) rose in after-hours trading Monday after the company delivered better-than-expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter.
The Lake Forest-based company, with about 600 restaurants, was up 1.7% to $10.96 for a market cap of $409.1 million.
President and CEO John Cappasola attributed the company’s performance for the quarter ended Dec. 29 to its competitive price and new menu items featuring crispy chicken and limited time offers, such as tamales, as helping drive the same-store sales growth of 3.8% in the quarter.
Total fourth-quarter revenue was $156.7 million, down 0.2% from the year-ago period. Analysts on average expected revenue of $156.1 million.
Net income totaled $7.5 million, up from a net loss of $114.1 million a year earlier and beating consensus estimates of $5.3 million.
The company also outlined some guidance for fiscal 2021, including a goal of 12 restaurant openings, a boost in menu prices of about 4% and increased labor costs of about 6% due to California’s minimum wage increase to $14 an hour at the start of the year.
Del Taco also noted the same-store sales trend has continued into the current quarter, with the momentum expected to continue through the second quarter.
