Companies: CARL   

At a time when everyone else in the casual dining sector is finding life tough, Carluccio’s says trading continues to improve. That hasn’t helped its shares much, which still finished last week down 10p at 150.5p (compared with a recommendation level here in April last year of 159p). Ignoring last year’s float costs, profits for the year to 23 September rose 28 per cent to £5.3 million. Diluted earnings rose more than a half to 6.5p per share. There was a 47 per cent jump in the dividend to 2.2p a share.

The company says it is in line to achieve its planned five openings in the current year. Carluccio’s probably deserves a premium rating. A low average spend per customer should isolate it from the worst of the downturn. Meanwhile, bid talk is never that far away. Hold.

Carluccio's	AIM	£37.36m	65.50p	-2.50p
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Other company articles:
Carluccio’s			03/04/2008
Carluccio’s			14/01/2008
Carluccio’s bucks the trend			07/12/2007
Caring ups stake in Carluccio’s			16/11/2007
Carluccio’s ahead of expectations			05/10/2007