By Mark Kalinowski
Published on August 4, 2020 at 12:00 AM
With this report, we upgrade the shares of Wendy’s (WEN) to Buy (from Neutral). The reasons for our upgrade include: (1) U.S. same-store sales trends that look better than the Street may expect (particularly for July, which may have positive implications for momentum for Q3 as a whole), (2) the possibility that the 5% or so of the Wendy’s worldwide store base that is company-owned produced higher-thananticipated restaurant-level margins in Q2 (and if so, what this may imply about the possibilities for such margins in Q3 and Q4), and (3) the recent nationwide launch of the Wendy’s Rewards loyalty program, which could help spur sales better than they otherwise would be through Q2 2021.
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By Mark Kalinowski
Published on May 13, 2020 at 12:00 AM
With this report, we change our rating on the shares of Wendy’s (WEN) to Neutral (from Buy). Our ratings change largely reflects two factors: (1) a possible slowdown in U.S. same-store sales momentum given recent media attention about alleged beef shortages at Wendy’s, and (2) the stock’s rise from $7.47 as of the March 13th market close to $20.78 as of yesterday’s (May 13th’s) market close. Shares of WEN have also outperformed the S&P 500 by 5-6 percentage points year-to-date, despite being in what is arguably one of the more challenged industries in a COVID-19 world.
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By Mark Kalinowski
Published on September 4, 2019 at 12:00 AM
With this report, we upgrade the shares of Wendy’s (WEN) to Buy from Neutral. We believe that August 2019 same-store sales for Wendy’s were easily the best such month for the concept so far this year, with the return of Spicy Chicken Nuggets proving to be a large — maybe even massive — hit with guests. In fact, we believe that August 2019 was perhaps the best or second-best month for Wendy’s samestore sales so far this decade. While there was nothing unusual about July 2019 (the start to Q3), if Wendy’s can retain some of the momentum that it apparently gained during August, that bodes well for the brand for September and as it heads toward its planned October 2019 Analyst Meeting.
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