Shares of Bowlero Corp. rose Monday after the bowling center operator and owner of the Professional Bowlers Association said it would begin paying a dividend to shareholders and reported fiscal second-quarter revenue that rose above expectations.
The company said it will pay a cash dividend of 5.5 cents per share on March 8 to shareholders of record on February 23.
Based on the BOWL of the stock,
Friday's closing price of $11.60 and an annualized dividend rate of 22 cents per share suggests a dividend yield of 1.90%, compared to the S&P 500 SPX's implied yield of 1.43%.
The stock rose 6.5% in pre-market trading.
The company also reported revenue for the quarter ended December 31 that jumped 11.8% to $305.7 million, which beat the FactSet consensus of $300.4 million. Revenues were boosted by 30% growth in Bowlero's events business.
Acquisitions and new construction added $41 million to revenue. This quarter was the first full quarter following the completion of the Lucky Strike acquisition on September 18, 2023.
Bowlero reported that same-store revenue, or revenue from positions open at least a year, was positive in the quarter, helped by a reset in midweek promotions, improved pricing on weekends and strength in its events business.
Bowlero swung to a net loss of $63.5 million in the second quarter from net income of $1.4 million in the same period last year. Net loss attributable to common shareholders widened to $65.4 million, or 44 cents per share, from $1.4 million, or a penny per share.
The net loss included expenses of $64.1 million from the impact of earnings for the period. The company revealed that there were 11.42 million unvested shares outstanding as of December 31.
Separately, the company said it repurchased $80 million worth of stock in the second quarter after repurchasing $131 million worth of stock in the first quarter. The company said it has renewed its buyback program to $200 million and removed the program's expiration date.
Looking ahead, the company said it still expects fiscal 2024 revenue to grow 10% to 15%, while the current FactSet revenue consensus of $1.16 billion suggests 9.1% growth.
Bowlero said it still expects to reinvest heavily in the business and raised its allocation for acquisitions to $190 million from $160 million.
The stock has risen 18.6% over the past three months through Friday, while the S&P 500 has advanced 13.8%.
