Shake Shack beats Street 1Q forecasts, shares rise

NEW YORK – Shake Shack shares rose in extended trading Thursday after the hamburger chain posted better-than-expected results in its first quarter.

The New York-based company said it earned net income of $1.5 million, or 7 cents per share, for the first three months of the year, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were 8 cents per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 6 cents per share.

The company's revenue rose 43 percent to $54.2 million in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $52.5 million.

Revenue at shacks open at least two years rose 9.9 percent during the quarter. The metric strips out the impact of locations that have recently opened or closed.

Shake Shack said results benefited from higher traffic driven in part by the launch of its fried chicken sandwich, the Chick'n Shack, throughout its domestic company-owned restaurants.

Shake Shack expects full-year revenue in the range of $245 million to $249 million, up from a previous range of $237 million to $242 million. Analysts expect $242.4 million million on average, according to a survey by FactSet.

Shake Shack Inc. shares rose $1.94, or 5.7 percent, to $36.20 in after-hours trading following the results. Through the end of regular-session trading Thursday, they had declined 14 percent since the beginning of the year.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on SHAK at http://www.zacks.com/ap/SHAK

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Keywords: Shake Shack, Earnings Report