Dave & Buster's plunges after same-store sales miss

Flickr/Mike Mozart

A Dave & Buster's restaurant.

• Dave & Buster's reported third-quarter results that beat on both the top and bottom lines.
• Same-store sales fell short of estimates.
• Shares plunged more than 15%.

Dave & Buster's reported third-quarter results that beat on both the top and bottom lines, but shares are plunging early Wednesday, down more than 15%, as same-store sales fell short of estimates.

The owner and operator of dining and entertainment venues reported earnings of $0.30 a share on revenue of $282.1 million, easily beating the $0.23 and $277.4 million that Wall Street analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting. However, same-store sales slumped 1.3% versus a year ago, worse than the 0.7% drop that was anticipated.

"Driven by strong unit growth, we delivered record top line results for the third quarter," CEO Brian Jenkins said in the press release.

"Comparable store sales improved sequentially as we continued to make progress on our key strategic priorities. With the 2017 class of stores on track to generate one of our best cash-on-cash returns in recent history, we are more confident than ever in our ability to drive double-digit unit growth and benefit from the large opportunity ahead."

Dave & Buster's raised the lower end of its full-year revenue forecast. It now sees revenue of between $1.243 billion and $1.255 billion, up from $1.230 billion to $1.255 billion.

Shares were down 7.5% this year through Tuesday.