Ruby Tuesday Falls After Poor Earnings and Outlook

Ruby Tuesday RT trades lower today after announcing Q4 earnings estimates. Ruby Tuesday reported Q4 EPS $0.21 versus $0.25 estimates and reported revenues of $363.2 million versus $358.93 million estimates. The company also guided FY 2013 EPS $0.24 to $0.34, which is lower than estimates of $0.44. Chairman, and CEO Sandy Beall commented, “Our same-restaurant sales for the fourth quarter were roughly in line with our expectations as we pared back our level of couponing while continuing to test our television marketing programs. Our earnings performance for the quarter excluding the items noted above was slightly below our expectations primarily due to unfavorable year-end tax adjustments, higher health plan costs, and higher interest expense resulting from our high yield bond offering.” Ruby Tuesday is currently trading at $5.05, down $1.12 or 18.15%.