By Mark Kalinowski
Published on June 18, 2019 at 12:00 AM
Kalinowski Equity Research invites you to participate in our first “Ask the Experts” conference call, to take place starting at 2:00 PM Eastern time on Thursday, June 27th. The featured speakers will be Bruce Dean, Co-founder and CEO of fast-growing family-dining concept Black Bear Diner; and Anita Adams, President and CFO of Black Bear Diner.
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By Mark Kalinowski
Published on April 3, 2019 at 12:00 AM
We initiate coverage of Denny’s (DENN) with a Neutral rating. At present, we do not view the multiple opportunities and positives of the company (and its stock) as enough to overcome the concerns and risks that we have. Amongst those risks are: (1) the possibility that sell-side consensus EPS for 2019 is too high as of this writing, (2) a likely lack of possible upside to current Street expectations as regards U.S. same-store sales, and (3) some fast-expanding family-dining chain competition. As with each of our Neutral-rated stocks, our target price for DENN is NA (not applicable). We note the following:
NEW YORK CITY NON-DEAL ROADSHOW PLANNED FOR THURSDAY, JUNE 20TH
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By Mark Kalinowski
Published on February 12, 2019 at 12:00 AM
At the recent ICR Conference 2019, management of Darden Restaurants (DRI; Not Rated) — owner and operator of Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, and several other full-service restaurant concepts — stated that on the acquisition front, “$300 million in system sales is the lowest we’d look at,” while “$750 million to $1 billion would be better” as “we’d want any acquisition to matter.” Management also made clear that it would intend to be disciplined in terms of what it would pay for any potential acquisition: “a lot of things would have to line up… the right vehicle being available at the right price… we’re not going to chase something.” Given this context, what are some restaurant-concept possibilities that Darden might look at acquiring, if they were to become available to Darden at the right price? This report briefly examines some specific possibilities, including First Watch, Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants, and Black Bear Diner. Not coincidentally, these three privately-held concepts ranked #1, #2, and #3 in terms of their U.S. system sales growth rate during 2017 amongst all full-service restaurant concepts of size $200 million or larger. We note the following:
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