Restaurants The Set-Up into the Print re CAKE, WEN, DIN, DPZ, and PZZA

By Mark Kalinowski Published on February 14, 2019 at 12:00 AM

A number of restaurant companies are scheduled to report quarterly earnings over the February 20-26 time frame, including The Cheesecake Factory (CAKE; Neutral), Wendy’s (WEN; Neutral), Dine Brands (DIN; Buy), Domino’s (DPZ; Buy), and Papa John’s (PZZA; Neutral). In this report, we look at the set-up into the print for each of these five companies:

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Updating our Q4E19 Kalinowski Casual Dining Same-Store Sales Index (Again)

By Mark Kalinowski Published on January 28, 2019 at 12:00 AM

With this report, we (again) raise our data-driven Kalinowski Casual Dining Index for Q4E, this time around from +2.1% to +3.1%. This 100 basis-point increase is based on our latest proprietary checks/data as regards same-store sales performance for this segment during the second half of November and all of December. (We had previously increased our Kalinowski Casual Dining Index for Q4E from +1.6% to +2.1% back on December 4th.)

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DIN Which Way are the Winds a-Blowin’ at Applebee’s

By Mark Kalinowski Published on January 28, 2019 at 12:00 AM

Following our data-driven checks regarding Applebee’s, we increase our Q4E 2018 same-store sales projection for that brand by +80 basis points, to a new “sell-side high” of +4.0%. We believe that Applebee’s — the nation’s largest casual dining concept, as measured by domestic systemwide sales — in particular enjoyed a solid December, during which time the Neighborhood Drink of the Month was the Dollar Jolly (lapping December 2017’s $1 Long Island Iced Teas), as well as a successful November (which featured $2 Bud Lights — Dilly! Dilly! — as compared to no nationwide drink special during November 2017; also, Bigger, Bolder Grill Combos were brought back as a featured promotion in mid-November 2018).

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