By Ryan D. Lavender
Published on April 28, 2021 at 1:03 PM
After Wednesday’s market close, The Cheesecake Factory reported adjusted Q1 EPS of +$0.20. This surpassed our +$0.05 forecast and sell-side consensus (according to Consensus Metrix) of -$0.07. Factors behind the outperformance relative to our forecast include: (1) Cost of Sales/Revenues (21.7% actual vs. 22.7% forecasted), (2) Labor Expenses/Revenues (36.6% actual vs. 37.7% projected, and (3) D&A/Revenues (3.5% actual vs. 3.8% estimated), partially offset by (1) Other Operating Expenses/ Revenues (28.2% actual vs. 27.7% forecasted), and (2) G&A/Revenues (7.1% actual vs. 6.8% forecasted).
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By Mark Kalinowski
Published on December 8, 2020 at 12:00 AM
About six months ago, we published a report examining market-share opportunities within the casual dining sector. In this report, we update our numbers. One of the important changes is that we now look for 8%-20% of the casual dining restaurants in the U.S. that were in operation as of the start of 2020 to be closed permanently by the end of March 2021. (Previously, we were looking for 3%-15% of casual dining restaurants to be closed permanently by the end of December 2020.) Keep in mind that we expect these closures to be heavily weighted toward independents/momand-pops and, to a somewhat lesser degree, smaller (privately-held in nearly all cases) restaurant chains.
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By Mark Kalinowski
Published on July 6, 2020 at 12:00 AM
Is it possible the Street is underestimating sales and market-share opportunities in 2021 for the larger publicly-traded quick-service pizza concepts? We believe that Domino’s (DPZ; Buy, $374.09) and Papa John’s (PZZA; Buy, $83.66) both remain well-positioned for the future for multiple reasons, but this particular factor may be underappreciated. Incidentally, it’s possible for Pizza Hut (owned by Yum Brands [YUM; Neutral, $86.55]) to benefit from the same issue, although Pizza Hut will over the short-to-medium term likely have to deal with net unit closures, limiting to some meaningful degree its opportunity to take market share from other pizza outlets’ closures.
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