Brinker International Inc. reported profit dropped 12% in the most recent quarter as the casual-dining company's sales at established stores were dented by a decline in customer traffic and margins tightened.

Despite an adjusted earnings beat, shares slipped 5% premarket—after a 1.2% decline over the past three months—to $45.25.

"While we continue to deliver strong cash flow and positive earnings growth through the year, we are disappointed in our recent sales performance," said Chief Executive Wyman Roberts. "Our focus going forward is to more aggressively invest in our brands to grow comp sales and capture market share."

Sales, excluding newly opened and closed locations, fell 4.1% at company-owned Chili's stores amid a 4.9% decline in customer traffic. Chili's franchised stores saw a 1.7% decline, including 2.2% domestically and 0.7% abroad.

Company-owned same-restaurant sales edged a 0.2% increase at its Maggiano's chain as traffic picked up 1.1% there.

Overall for the period ended March 23, Brinker reported a profit of $57.5 million, or $1 a share, down from $65.4 million, or $1.02 a share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, adjusted per-share earnings rose to $1 from 94 cents. Revenue climbed 5.1% to $824.6 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share earnings of 98 cents on revenue of $843 million.

Restaurant operating margin fell to 17.4% from 18.9%.

Write to Anne Steele at Anne.Steele@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 19, 2016 10:35 ET (14:35 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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