After a controvery-filled yr, Cracker Barrel Outdated Nation Retailer is getting a big inventory market increase on Wednesday following a constructive earnings report for its 2026 fiscal third quarter.
As of noon buying and selling on Wednesday, shares had been surging practically 30%, hitting ranges not seen since September 2025.
The Southern restaurant chain reported a complete income lower of two.9%, hitting $797.4 million. Nonetheless, this topped a Wall Road consensus estimate of $776.7 million, as cited by Barron’s.
Comparable retailer restaurant gross sales decreased 2.6% and comparable retailer retail gross sales decreased 1.8%. Internet earnings reached $42.8 million, triple final yr’s quantity.
Whereas analysts anticipated seeing a loss per share, Cracker Barrel truly noticed a revenue. GAAP earnings per diluted share had been $1.90. The adjusted earnings per diluted share had been 29 cents.
Maybe most fun to traders, Cracker Barrel elevated its outlook for fiscal 2026, saying it now expects income of as much as $3.30 billion, versus an earlier estimate of as much as $3.27 billion.
The outcomes are noteworthy after a tricky yr.
In August 2025, Cracker Barrel received significant backlash over an tried rebrand. It introduced that its basic brand—that includes an “Outdated Timer” sitting in a chair leaning in opposition to a barrel—would change to a extra modern-looking image with solely the model identify.
Following the backlash and protracted calls (pushed by conservative influencers) for the model to embrace its nostalgic roots, the brand new brand was scrapped after a couple of week.
Tuesday’s earnings report might point out that Cracker Barrel has lastly put the incident behind it. With at this time’s improve in shares, Cracker Barrel inventory (Nasdaq: CBRL) is up greater than 67% yr thus far.
