By Ryan D. Lavender
Published on March 9, 2021 at 4:55 PM
On January 6, 2020, Yum Brands announced its plan to acquire The Habit Burger Grill, which as of full-year 2019 was the 17th-largest burger concept in the U.S. (in terms of domestic systemwide sales, at $450+ million), and in the top 100 overall. The Habit Burger Grill is meaningfully smaller than Yum’s core brands of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. As such, the acquisition of Habit (which closed on March 18, 2020) suggests that: (1) Yum Brands may be generally acquisitive in the future (incidentally, in keeping with current general industry trends), and (2) it isn’t hesitant to make an acquisition that it believes will create shareholder value in the long term, even if the size of that acquisition isn’t all that large relative to its core brands today.
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By Ryan D. Lavender
Published on March 8, 2021 at 5:00 PM
Sometimes, relative bargains can be unearthed when looking at a group of stocks, and comparing their current prices with these stocks’ 52-week highs. For example, many full-service restaurant stocks were -50% or more below their 52-week highs as of late March 2020, and in hindsight, this proved to be a great time to load up on many full-service restaurant stocks.
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By Ryan D. Lavender
Published on March 3, 2021 at 5:40 PM
Earlier today, Wendy’s reported Q4 2020 adjusted EPS of $0.17. While this was one cent better than our $0.16 forecast, it still came in one cent below sell-side consensus (according to Consensus Metrix) of $0.18. Wendy’s indicates that the EPS number was ahead of its internal plan.
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