By Elias Schisgall
Texas Roadhouse said it would raise prices in April as the rising costs of goods weighed on its margins in the fourth quarter.
The restaurant chain on Thursday logged a fourth-quarter profit of $84.6 million, or $1.28 a share, compared with a profit of $115.8 million, or $1.73 a share, a year earlier.
Revenue rose to $1.48 billion, up from $1.44 billion a year earlier.
Wall Street was expecting earnings of $1.51 a share and $1.5 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.
Chief Executive Officer Jerry Morgan said that the company is still reckoning with commodity inflation, which is pressuring margins. Restaurant margin as a percentage of sales fell to 13.9%, as a 9.5% increase in the cost of goods and 2.5% in labor costs offset gains from higher sales.
The company said it plans to increase menu prices by about 1.9% in early April.
Same-store sales grew 4.2%, behind analysts' expectation of 5.2% growth, according to FactSet. The company said that same-store sales have risen 8.2% in the first seven weeks of the first quarter.
For the current year, Texas Roadhouse said it expects to pay an effective income tax rate of between 14% and 15%, compared to its previous guidance of about 15%.
Write to Elias Schisgall at elias.schisgall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 19, 2026 16:20 ET (21:20 GMT)
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