• Cava beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly earnings and revenue.
• The Mediterranean restaurant chain said its customer traffic increased 9.5% in the second fiscal quarter, bucking the industry trend.
• In addition, the company increased its forecast for the full year.

Cava raised its full-year forecast on Thursday as its restaurants reported strong customer traffic, leading to better-than-expected quarterly profits and revenue.

The company’s shares rose 9 percent in extended trading. The stock has more than doubled in value this year, giving Cava’s market capitalization around $11.6 billion as of Thursday’s close.

Here’s what the company reported for the quarter ended July 14 compared to Wall Street expectations, based on an analyst survey conducted by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 17 cents versus 13 cents expected
• Revenue: $233 million versus $220 million expected

The Mediterranean restaurant chain reported net income of $19.7 million, or 17 cents per share, for the second fiscal quarter, up from $6.5 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier.

Net sales rose 35% to $233 million. The company’s comparable-store sales rose 14.4%, beating StreetAccount estimates of 7.9%.

While many other restaurant chains are reporting declining traffic as consumers spend less, Cava’s visits increased 9.5 percent during the quarter. Brett Schulman, CEO and co-founder of Cava, cited the chain’s new grilled steak option as one reason customers continued to come to the restaurants during the quarter.

Cava opened a net 18 new locations during the quarter, bringing its total restaurant count to 341.

For fiscal 2024, Cava now expects existing store sales growth of 8.5% to 9.5%, up from the previous range of 4.5% to 6.5%. The company also expects to open 54 to 57 new locations this year, up from the previous forecast of 50 to 54 restaurants.

Cava also expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $109 million to $114 million. The company had previously forecast adjusted EBITDA of $100 million to $105 million for the fiscal year.