Frisch's Restaurants, Inc. announced that on November 22, 2005 the Board of Directors declared an $.11 per share quarterly dividend payable January 10, 2006 to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 27, 2005. This will be the 180th consecutive quarterly dividend paid by Frisch's. The company has reported a profit every year since going public in 1960, and paid cash dividends to shareholders every quarter over the same period.

Frisch's Restaurants, Inc. is a regional company that operates full service family-style restaurants under the name of Frisch's Big Boy. The Company also operates grill buffet-style restaurants under the name Golden Corral under certain licensing agreements. All restaurants operated by the Company are located in various regions of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Plans are in place to expand Golden Corral operations into certain parts of Michigan and West Virginia.

Cash flow, Book Value, and Earnings per share have grown fairly steadily over the last 10 years per the S&P Stock Report.  Last year there was a hiccup in earnings:

The company reported $86.5 million in revenues, a 2.9 percent increase from $84 million in the same period last year. Net earnings for the quarter declined 13 percent to $2.5 million, compared to $2.9 in 2004. Diluted earnings per share decreased to 49 cents per share, from 56 cents last year.

"Like many other restaurant operators in the family dining segment of the foodservice industry, we have experienced softness in the same store sales as our customers continue to be impacted by higher energy costs," said Frisch's president and CEO Craig Maier.

"Our Golden Corral restaurants posted a same-store sales decline of 11.2 percent during our fiscal first quarter," he said. "We have experienced same store sales declines for our Golden Corral restaurants for eight straight quarters now. We are continuing to research the various causes and will develop appropriate responses."

I am encouraged by the pro-active management.  This is expected, as insiders own 47% of the company's stock.

Valuations look favorable - P/E 8.7, P/B 1.6, Price/Cash Flow 4.6, Price/Sales 0.4.  Dividend yield is 1.8%. 

Profitability and Management Effectiveness look good as well - ROE 17.8%, ROA 8.8%, Cash Flow Margin 9.4%.