Krispy Kreme shares are crashing on the heels of a yearlong, sugar-fueled high.
The doughnut chain’s stock — which had tripled over the past 12 months as the 773-unit operation expanded into coffee and other drinks and played down its yeasty treats in some stores — got dunked yesterday, plunging 15 percent.
Wall Street is concerned about the high cost of expansion overseas.
Krispy Kreme’s spending is taking a bigger-than-expected bite out of profits, despite increased demand for the company’s coffee and glazed pastries.
Executives at the Winston-Salem, NC, company said they expect full-year earnings of 59 to 63 cents a share, missing Wall Street’s estimate of 64 cents a share.
The shares — which a day earlier had hit an eight-year high of $23.57 — slid throughout the day to close at $19.72.
Despite that drop, Krispy Kreme shares remain relatively pricey, trading at more than 32 times the company’s projected earnings per share.
It’s not the first time Krispy Kreme has taken Wall Street on a roller-coaster ride.
After going public in 2000 at $5.30 a share, the 76-year-old firm saw its shares climb more than 800 percent in three years, trading near $50 in August 2003 before getting slammed by costs from overly aggressive growth.
Krispy Kreme said net income slipped to $4.7 million, or 7 cents, for the quarter that ended Aug. 4, from $4.9 million, or 7 cents.
Revenue rose more than 10 percent to $112.7 million.
Nevertheless, analysts were anticipating earnings of 16 cents per share on revenue of $111.9 million, according to FactSet.