UPDATE 4-DineEquity profit above views; cost cuts help
* EPS 72 cents ex-items; Wall St view 16 cents
* IHOP domestic same-store sales up 2 pct
* Applebee's domestic same-store sales down 3 pct
* Shares jump as much as 14 percent (Adds analyst comment, details of restaurant sales, adds byline, previous dateline NEW YORK)
By Nicole Maestri and Lisa Baertlein
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES, April 28 (Reuters) - DineEquity Inc (DIN.N), the parent of IHOP and Applebee's restaurant chains, reported a much better-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, helped by cost controls and higher sales at its IHOP locations, and its shares rose as much as 14 percent.
The results come after other restaurant chains, including P.F. Chang's (PFCB.O), Cheesecake Factory (CAKE.O) and Brinker International (EAT.N), have reported results that topped Wall Street estimates, helped in part by cost cuts.
DineEquity's results were "similar to other casual dining peers to the extent that upside, at least versus our estimate, was from expense management," said Telsey Advisory Group analyst Tom Forte. "Company restaurant expenses came in at about 84.1 percent of sales; we were looking for it to be more like 88.7 percent of sales."
He also said the restaurant operator's sales were a little better than he expected.
Glendale, California-based DineEquity's first-quarter net income rose to $30.63 million, or $1.80 per share, from $8.34 million, or 50 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding gains on debt repurchases and asset sales, it said earnings per share were 72 cents. Analysts on average expected 16 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.
Total revenue fell 15.5 percent to $374.24 million. Domestic same-store sales at IHOP restaurants rose 2 percent, while Applebee's systemwide domestic same-store sales fell 3 percent.
IHOP bought Applebee's in a roughly $2 billion leveraged buyout in 2007, before global credit markets froze and consumer spending cooled. It later changed its name to DineEquity.
The company's debt load has investors nervous since it limits DineEquity's financial flexibility in a very challenging operating market and can cause big swings in financial results.
DineEquity retired $78.4 million of debt at a discount to face value in the first quarter, and said it remained "comfortably" within compliance of its key debt covenants even though efforts to sell some of its Applebee's restaurants to franchisees were hindered by a lack of financing.
"DineEquity has sufficient financial flexibility to continue to meet debt obligations and debt covenants in 2009 without the further sale of Applebee's company-operated restaurants," DineEquity said in a statement.
J.P. Morgan restaurant analyst Steven Rees said in a client note that DineEquity could be hurt if it cuts costs too much. He added that he remained cautious on the company's long-term outlook still-elusive restaurant sales.
For the year, DineEquity said it still expected same-store sales at IHOP restaurants to range between 1 percent lower and 1 percent higher, and those at Applebee's to be down between 2 percent and 5 percent.
Shares of DineEquity were up 11.8 percent at $29.22 after touching $29.87 in early trade. (Reporting by Nicole Maestri in New York and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Derek Caney, Maureen Bavdek and Lisa Von Ahn, Leslie Gevirtz)
