Try as it might, drive-in quick service restaurant (QSR) Sonic (Nasdaq:SONC)
just can't seem to get everything working at top form in its business
model. While the company has an innovative (some might say “quirky”)
menu that really does stand out from the offerings at McDonald's (NYSE:MCD), Burger King (NYSE:BKW), and Wendy's (NYSE:WEN),
and has looked to refine its promotional activity and value-priced
offerings, the company has made only modest progress in terms of growth.
As it stands today, analyst expectations on Sonic are pretty bifurcated.
There's a small group that believe that Sonic will regain its growth
momentum and do significantly better from here, while the larger group
is more pessimistic and calls for Sonic to basically bump along as it
has for some time now. While these shares have been strong over the past
year and have recently broken out to a multi-year high, further gains
could well be in store if the optimists are right.
Read more here:
http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/032713/sonic-still-tricky-spot-sonc-wen-jack-mcd-bkw-cmg-pnra.aspx
Showing posts with label Jack in the Box. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack in the Box. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Friday, February 8, 2013
Investopedia: Chipotle Still Getting The Benefit Of The Doubt
Last year was a rough one for Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG). Once a nearly bulletproof growth story, a sharp slowdown in traffic and store comps
growth expectations took large chunks out of the stock on multiple
occasions. Investors are slow to abandon growth stories (at least
outside of tech), and these shares enjoyed a 30% rally to close out the
year. Consequently, it's not easy to make a value call on the shares
today, and investors should be wary of the expectations that traffic
growth will accelerate in the second half of the year.
Continue here:
http://www.investopedia.com/
Continue here:
http://www.investopedia.com/
Friday, October 28, 2011
Investopedia: McDonald's Off The Dollar Menu
Combine a worldwide brand with solid execution, good growth, market share expansion, and a healthy dividend and it probably should be no great surprise that the stock is not cheap. Few companies are executing as well as McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) (let alone few restaurant companies), and the stock reflects this. While the company certainly has levers to pull for further growth and is a high-quality name, new investors may want to wait in the hope of a bargain before building a position here.
Juicy Third Quarter Growth
McDonald's did well for itself in the third quarter. Revenue rose 14% as reported, and 8% on a constant currency basis, as the company saw 5% worldwide comparable sales growth. Comparable store growth was good in the U.S. (helped by a strong September) and surprisingly strong in Europe. Results in Asia were a little disappointing, but still positive.
Read the full article at Investopedia:
http://stocks.investopedia.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Investopedia: McDonald's Seems A Bit Overcooked
Quality is all well and good, but at some point price always has to matter. That, then, is the issue with McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) shares today - there is really no quibbling over the quality of the company, but have investors already baked in more than enough optimism?
The Quarter that Was
The fourth quarter was really not a performance that McDonald's management is going to tack onto the board as a prototype. Revenue grew 4% (5% in constant currency) and met estimates, and full-quarter comp growth of 5% was not all that bad. More problematic, though, is the trend in those comps. December comps were a bit soft, rising 3.7% versus 4.8% in November. U.S. comps slipped below 3% in December, while Europe went negative. Although the company pointed towards weather as a key issue in the U.S. and Europe numbers, and management is still looking for 4 to 5% growth in 2011, institutional investors can be a twitchy and unforgiving lot.
Going down the earnings statement, the company appeared to have a relatively lower-quality quarter. Operating income grew 2% as reported (or 3% in constant currency) and the company clearly lost some of its operating leverage. What's more, while the company met estimates for the period, it got a boost from more favorable taxes and would have missed the quarter otherwise. (For more, See Zooming In On Operating Income.)
The Road Ahead
For a company of its size, McDonald's has done an impressive job of growing its free cash flow over the past five or six years. Moreover, the company has navigated the recession better than many other restaurant operators. Some of that is due to new store hours and menu items (particularly the value meal options), while some of it is also due to the quality-value trade-off that customers see in McDonald's menu (nutritionists may hate it, but customers like it).
Please follow this link for the full piece:
http://stocks.investopedia.
The Quarter that Was
The fourth quarter was really not a performance that McDonald's management is going to tack onto the board as a prototype. Revenue grew 4% (5% in constant currency) and met estimates, and full-quarter comp growth of 5% was not all that bad. More problematic, though, is the trend in those comps. December comps were a bit soft, rising 3.7% versus 4.8% in November. U.S. comps slipped below 3% in December, while Europe went negative. Although the company pointed towards weather as a key issue in the U.S. and Europe numbers, and management is still looking for 4 to 5% growth in 2011, institutional investors can be a twitchy and unforgiving lot.
Going down the earnings statement, the company appeared to have a relatively lower-quality quarter. Operating income grew 2% as reported (or 3% in constant currency) and the company clearly lost some of its operating leverage. What's more, while the company met estimates for the period, it got a boost from more favorable taxes and would have missed the quarter otherwise. (For more, See Zooming In On Operating Income.)
The Road Ahead
For a company of its size, McDonald's has done an impressive job of growing its free cash flow over the past five or six years. Moreover, the company has navigated the recession better than many other restaurant operators. Some of that is due to new store hours and menu items (particularly the value meal options), while some of it is also due to the quality-value trade-off that customers see in McDonald's menu (nutritionists may hate it, but customers like it).
Please follow this link for the full piece:
http://stocks.investopedia.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Private Equity Has A Hankering For Fast Food
The long, strange story of Burger King (NYSE:BKC) is soon to take another twist. The world's #2 hamburger chain announced Thursday morning that it had accepted a long-rumored bid from 3G Capital that will give current Burger King shareholders $24 in cash per share.
What a Long, Strange Trip it has Been
BurFor a large international restaurant chain, Burger King has had some ups and downs on the ownership front. The company was privately-owned for about eight years before Pillsbury bought it. Pillsbury had difficulty running the company and it became part of Grand Metropolitan (now Diageo (NYSE:DEO)) in 1989, when Grand Metropolitan bought Pillsbury.
Diageo built on Pillsbury's legacy of poor management with even more poor management, but decided to sell the chain at the turn of the century. A group of three well-known investors (a unit of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Bain Capital, and TPG Capital) bought the company, actually ran it reasonably well by prior standards and then took the company public in 2006.
Click on the link below to read the full piece:
http://stocks.investopedia.
What a Long, Strange Trip it has Been
BurFor a large international restaurant chain, Burger King has had some ups and downs on the ownership front. The company was privately-owned for about eight years before Pillsbury bought it. Pillsbury had difficulty running the company and it became part of Grand Metropolitan (now Diageo (NYSE:DEO)) in 1989, when Grand Metropolitan bought Pillsbury.
Diageo built on Pillsbury's legacy of poor management with even more poor management, but decided to sell the chain at the turn of the century. A group of three well-known investors (a unit of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Bain Capital, and TPG Capital) bought the company, actually ran it reasonably well by prior standards and then took the company public in 2006.
Click on the link below to read the full piece:
http://stocks.investopedia.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The Next McDonald's
No matter how much nutritionists may hate it, fast food joints - called quick-service restaurants (QSR) in the industry lingo - are here to stay. With Americans still in mass-migration away from their kitchens and into the clutches of the "do it for me" food industry, dozens of chains are trying to lock in their own recipe for becoming the next McDonald's (NYSE: MCD). Should investors order up any of these aspirants?
Chipotle Mexican Grill - Spicy Growth, Hot Valuation
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) is less than 20 years old, but it has already made a splash in the QSR segment by capturing over one-third of the Mexican-themed segment. Chipotle boasts of fresh ingredients and the ability to customize any order to the diner's tastes (so long as it includes the ingredients they have on hand), and customers have responded in force.
For the complete column, please go to:
http://stocks.investopedia.
Chipotle Mexican Grill - Spicy Growth, Hot Valuation
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) is less than 20 years old, but it has already made a splash in the QSR segment by capturing over one-third of the Mexican-themed segment. Chipotle boasts of fresh ingredients and the ability to customize any order to the diner's tastes (so long as it includes the ingredients they have on hand), and customers have responded in force.
For the complete column, please go to:
http://stocks.investopedia.
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