DUBLIN Ohio Wendy's International Inc. upped its full-year, per-share earnings guidance by 9 cents Tuesday, after it completed an almost $300 million share repurchase that will reduce the company's share count by about 9 percent.
The company repurchased 9.0 million shares in the transaction first announced in February, at a purchase price of $31.33 per share.
Because of the resulting lower number of shares outstanding in the company's full-year share count, Wendy's said its annual per-share profit would range between $1.26 and $1.32, up from previous guidance of $1.17 per share to $1.23 per share. In fiscal 2006, Wendy's earned 37 cents per share.
For the company's first quarter, per-share earnings are expected to range between 11 cents and 14 cents, compared with a net loss of 5 cents per share in the first quarter of 2006, Wendy's reported.
"We expect Wendy's first-quarter results to reflect a significant increase in store margin performance compared to continuing operations a year ago," said chief executive officer and president, Kerrii Anderson.
Still, certain strategic items that were not in place last year will negatively affect the quarter's comparability with result from a year ago, the company said. Those changes include a decrease in total unit count of about 35 corporate restaurants and about 40 franchised units, $1.5 million of expenses for franchisee remodeling incentives, between $3 million and $4 million in expenses for performance-based incentive compensation and $4 million in restaurant closing and lease termination expenses.
Wendy's, which operates or franchises more than 6,000 namesake quick-service restaurants, said it planned to report first-quarter sales April 5. First-quarter earnings results are expected April 26.
