Restaurant company Bloomin’ Brands (NASDAQ: BLMN) announced better-than-expected revenue in Q2 CY2026, with sales up 1.3% year on year to $1.02 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.39 per share was 35.1% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
Is now the time to buy Bloomin' Brands? Find out by accessing our full research report, it’s free.
Bloomin' Brands (BLMN) Q2 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $1.02 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.00 billion (1.3% year-on-year growth, 1.3% beat)
- Adjusted EPS: $0.39 vs analyst estimates of $0.29 (35.1% beat)
- Adjusted EPS guidance for the full year is $0.95 at the midpoint, beating analyst estimates by 9.5%
- Operating Margin: 3.8%, in line with the same quarter last year
- Locations: 1,448 at quarter end, down from 1,479 in the same quarter last year
- Same-Store Sales rose 2.3% year on year (-0.1% in the same quarter last year)
- Market Capitalization: $763.7 million
Company Overview
Owner of the iconic Australian-themed Outback Steakhouse, Bloomin’ Brands (NASDAQ: BLMN) is a leading American restaurant company that owns and operates a portfolio of popular restaurant brands.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years.
With $3.98 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Bloomin' Brands is one of the larger restaurant chains in the industry and benefits from a well-known brand that influences consumer purchasing decisions. However, its scale is a double-edged sword because there is only so much real estate to build restaurants, placing a ceiling on its growth. To accelerate system-wide sales, Bloomin' Brands likely needs to optimize its pricing or lean into new chains and international expansion.
As you can see below, Bloomin' Brands struggled to increase demand as its $3.98 billion of sales for the trailing 12 months was close to its revenue seven years ago. This was mainly because it didn’t open many new restaurants.
This quarter, Bloomin' Brands reported modest year-on-year revenue growth of 1.3% but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 1.3%.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to remain flat over the next 12 months. While this projection implies its newer menu offerings will catalyze better top-line performance, it is still below the sector average.
ONE MORE THING: The $21 AI Application Stock Wall Street Forgot. While Wall Street obsesses over who’s building AI, one company is already using it to print money. And nobody’s paying attention.
AI chip stocks trade at ridiculous valuations. This company processes a trillion consumer signals monthly using AI and trades at a third of the price. The gap won’t last. The institutions will figure it out. You need to see this first. Read the FREE Report Before They Notice.
Restaurant Performance
Number of Restaurants
A restaurant chain’s total number of dining locations influences how much it can sell and how quickly revenue can grow.
Bloomin' Brands listed 1,448 locations in the latest quarter and has kept its restaurant count flat over the last two years while other restaurant businesses have opted for growth.
When a chain doesn’t open many new restaurants, it usually means there’s stable demand for its meals and it’s focused on improving operational efficiency to increase profitability.
Same-Store Sales
The change in a company’s restaurant base only tells one side of the story. The other is the performance of its existing locations, which informs management teams whether they should expand or downsize their physical footprints. Same-store sales provides a deeper understanding of this issue because it measures organic growth at restaurants open for at least a year.
Bloomin' Brands’s demand within its existing dining locations has barely increased over the last two years as its same-store sales were flat. This performance isn’t ideal, and we’d be skeptical if Bloomin' Brands starts opening new restaurants to artificially boost revenue growth.
In the latest quarter, Bloomin' Brands’s same-store sales rose 2.3% year on year. This growth was an acceleration from its historical levels, which is always an encouraging sign.
Key Takeaways from Bloomin' Brands’s Q2 Results
We were impressed by Bloomin' Brands’s optimistic full-year EPS guidance, which blew past analysts’ expectations. We were also glad its EPS outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its EPS guidance for next quarter missed. Overall, this print had many key positives. The stock traded up 24.7% to $11.13 immediately after reporting.
Bloomin' Brands put up rock-solid earnings, but one quarter doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. When making that decision, it’s important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
