Why Bloomin' Brands (BLMN) Stock Is Down Today

What Happened?

Shares of restaurant company Bloomin’ Brands (NASDAQ:BLMN) fell 2.6% in the afternoon session after the stock continued to decline as the company posted weak earnings guidance for the full year and the next quarter. 

Although the Outback Steakhouse parent reported second-quarter revenue of $1.00 billion, which was down 10.4% year-on-year but slightly ahead of analyst expectations, investors focused on the bleak outlook. The company's earnings per share (EPS) forecast for the upcoming quarter and the full year both missed analysts' expectations significantly. This disappointing guidance overshadowed the minor revenue beat. Furthermore, the company recorded the slowest revenue growth among its peer group in the sit-down dining sector, signaling potential challenges ahead and prompting a negative reaction from the market.

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What Is The Market Telling Us

Bloomin' Brands’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 47 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 18 days ago when the stock dropped 3.1% on the news that markets continued to decline, as investors grew cautious ahead of a key speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. 

The move came as U.S. equity markets recorded a fifth consecutive day of losses for major indexes like the S&P 500, with technology stocks experiencing the largest declines. Investors have grown wary that the sharp rally in the tech sector since April may have advanced too far.

Bloomin' Brands is down 42.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $6.90 per share, it is trading 60.7% below its 52-week high of $17.54 from September 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Bloomin' Brands’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $413.87.

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