LEBANON Tenn. Taking advantage of a stock price near its annual low, CBRL Group Inc. authorized on Tuesday an expansion of its stock repurchase program.
The company, which operates 570 Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurants and gift shops, said it would purchase periodically on the open market an additional 625,000 shares. CBRL said it already has repurchased 1 million shares in the current quarter for a total of about $34.1 million, or an average share price of $34.12. The company had about 23.8 million shares outstanding, as of its latest quarterly report.
On Tuesday, CBRL’s stock rose 6.57 percent, closing at $26.27 per share. It hit its annual low of $24.27 per share on Jan. 15, during a week when both the markets and restaurant stocks took a beating from recession fears, weak December retail sales results and lower-than-expected employment numbers from the federal government. For the week ended Jan. 18, the Nation’s Restaurant News Index fell 4.4 percent from the week earlier and the Dow fell 4.0 percent. CBRL’s annual high was $50.74, which it hit on March 23, 2007.
“At current price levels, we believe the true value of CBRL clearly is not reflected in its stock price, based upon current performance or future potential,” chairman, president and CEO Michael A. Woodhouse, said in a statement.
