Isle Of Capri Casinos (ISLE), a leading regional gaming and entertainment company, saw its loss narrow to $2.32 million or $0.06 a share for the quarter ended Jul. 27, 2014. In the last year period, the company reported a loss of $4.86 million or $0.12 a share. Adjusted earnings per share met the analysts' expectation of $0.02.
Revenue during the first-quarter went up marginally 1.53 percent to $241.65 million from $238.01 million in the last year period.
Gross margin contracted by 14 basis points over the last year period to 45.13 percent. The company posted increase in operating income to $19.91 million, compared with $18.10 million in the previous year period. That has resulted in improvement of 64 basis points in operating margins to 8.24 percent.
Virginia McDowell, president and chief executive officer, commented, ''For the second consecutive quarter, we increased Adjusted EBITDA and operating margins, on a same-store basis, despite a still challenging operating environment. Excluding Nemacolin, which was open for only one month during last year's quarter, six properties improved net revenues year over year and eight properties increased Adjusted EBITDA year over year. We continued to benefit from our profit improvement initiatives during the quarter.''
Cash Position
As on Jul. 27, 2014, the company's cash balance stood at $68.33 million, up 2.66 percent or $1.77 million from Jul. 28, 2013.
Working Capital
Isle Of Capri Casinos working capital turned positive to $6.21 million as at Jul. 27, 2014, from $15.03 million on Jul. 28, 2013. It registered an increase in current ratio to 1.05 as at Jul. 27, 2014 from 0.90 on Jul. 28, 2013.
Debt Position
Isle Of Capri Casinos has witnessed a decline in the total debt over the last one year. As on Jul. 27, 2014, total debt stood at $1056.61 million, down 9.81 percent or $114.98 million, from Jul. 28, 2013.
The company's total debt was 82.18 percent of total assets as on Jul. 27, 2014, compared with 74.76 percent on Jul. 28, 2013. It has witnessed an increase in debt to equity ratio to 58.86 on Jul. 27, 2014 compared with 8.44 on Jul. 28, 2013.
Interest coverage ratio, which determines how easily a company can pay interest expenses on outstanding debt, has declined to 0.93 from 0.80 in the same period last year.
