The Group has had a tumultuous year as they look to re-establish their brands and reduce costs.
Companies: Restaurant Group plc
Restaurant Group (LON: RTN) has again seen a big shift in its share price this morning as the Company releases their interim results for the first half of 2017.
The company saw LFL sales fall by 2%, and PBT fall by 30% compared to H1 16. EBITDA also fell from £60m to £44m, and EPS fell from 14p to 10p in the same period. Despite these falls an interim dividend of 6.8p per share has been maintained, "reflecting the Board's confidence in the plan" the report said.
The warnings of slower performance in H1 were noted by the Group earlier this year, as they look to shake up their brands to offer a better experience for customers, increase technology in their sites, reduce costs and change their value positioning.
Management noted in the interims that:
"Current trading is in line with our expectations; we continue to expect to deliver an adjusted PBT outcome for the full-year in line with current market expectations."
Shares rose over 11% in early morning trading off the back of the results, proving some investors see potential in the planned turnaround of the Group's key restaurants Frankie & Benny's and Chiquito.
Singers' note this morning said they do not anticipate making any significant changes to their forecasts with the release of the H1 17 results. The note also said:
"The shares have been weak of late and trade on a FY17 P/E of 13.8x, falling to 13.4x with an attractive 5.5% yield. We reinforce our Buy on recovery grounds with a 12m TP of 415p."
Panmure Gordon also released a note on the Group today, with their take on the interims being:
"We continue to see Q4 as the earliest time to meaningfully assess the extent and sustainability of strategic initiative successes. For now, we lack conviction and remain at HOLD."
The Group's market cap is currently £640m, and trades against an industry median PE ratio of 16x. The share price has fluctuated significantly this year, falling to a low of 287p in January to a high of 385p in March. Today's share price currently hovers around 345p.
