Posts for Ticker ‘BWLD’

Food Investor Alert: Fat & Calorie Displays At Food Chains (MCD, YUM, BWLD, CAKE, PFCB, RRGB, EAT, BKC, WEN, TXRH, SONC, CPKI)

If you like to invest in food chain restaurants, Thursday was a bad day as a group of bipartisan senators are trying to require chains to list calories on their menus.  This is aimed at the big restaurant chains with 20 locations of the same name rather than mom and pop stores.  If you can believe it, fast food and casual dining restaurant owners McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) and Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) already have this available online.  Some of the big chains out there make this available and some do not.

Imagine if (or when) you are forced to see the calorie, salt, and fat counts for many of your favorite foods such as Buffalo Wings at Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD). Or what about some of those oversized plates big enough for two or three meals at The Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ: CAKE)?  And what if you tally up the full calories and sodium in Chinese food at PF Chang’s China Bistro Inc. (NASDAQ: PFCB)?  Or a Monster Burger at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. (NASDAQ: RRGB).  Or what about Brinker International Inc. (NYSE: EAT) chains like Chili’s for the Texas Cheese Fries?

We do not mean to pick on any single chain by naming menu items or chains, because this  could affect all big chain owners to the likes of Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC), Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEN), Texas Roadhouse Inc. (NASDAQ: TXRH), Sonic Corp. (NASDAQ: SONC), California Pizza Kitchen Inc., (NASDAQ: CPKI), and many more.  The news of this had a significant negative impact on most of these stocks today when you consider we had an up market.
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Posted on: June 11, 2009 – 4:33 pm in Consumer Goods, Food, Law, Politics, Regulation, Retail, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Oppenheimer Hits Casual Dining (BWLD, CMG, PNRA)

money-stack-image42Oppenheimer has started coverage several of the casual dining chains this morning.  Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) was initiated as an “Outperform” rating, with a 40% implied upside at a $52.00 price target.  Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) and Panera Bread (PNRA) were both initiated with ‘Perform’ ratings.  So far these ratings have had no significant impact this morning in trading.

Jon C. Ogg

Posted on: April 21, 2009 – 7:40 am in Analyst Calls, Food, Retail, , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ATI, APOL, AUO, ABX, BWLD, EXPD, HAL, JCOM, NOK, MTN)

These are the ten top analyst calls we have seen early this Tuesday morning with about two hours until the open:

Allegheny Tech (ATI) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Apollo Group (APOL) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
AU Optronics (AUO) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Barrick Gold (ABX) Raised to Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Expeditors International (EXPD) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Halliburton (HAL) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
j2 Global (JCOM) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Nokia (NOK) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Vail Resorts (MTN) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.

Jon C. Ogg
April 21, 2009

Posted on: April 21, 2009 – 6:51 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Value & GARP in Buffalo Wild Wings Earnings (BWLD)

Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) is not really feeling the pinch of a recession.  The company posted EPS at $0.34 on a 9.7% rise in revenues to $91.4 million.  First Call had estimates at $0.36 EPS on $91.8 million in revenues.  Same-store sales rose 3.4% at company-owned stores and 2.3% at franchised stores.

Its fiscal 2007 EPS came in at $1.10 on net income of $19.654 million.  The company offered guidance for 2008 at 15% unit growth in 2008 and net income growth of 25% for 2008.

Its 52-week trading range is $18.25 to $47.75, and shares closed down 2.2% today at $23.40.  Shares were up 14% at $26.80 in after-hours trading.

With a current P/E ratio of 21 and anticipated growth of 15% in units and 25% in net income, it will be hard to criticize this chicken spot too much.  That might even be more of the case after the company sold off 50% from its highs.

Jon C. Ogg
February 12, 2008

Posted on: February 12, 2008 – 4:31 pm in Earnings, Food,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (BWLD, CMI, TEX, HTZ, LDK, MA, MPWR, MNST, SNCR, ULTI, WYNN)

These are not the only impact analyst calls, but these are the top research calls that 247WallSt.com is focusing on pre-market this Thursday:

  • Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) started as Underweight at J.P.Morgan.
  • Cummins (CMI) & Terex (TEX) both started as Buy at Banc of America.
  • Hertz (HTZ) started as Buy at UBS.
  • LDK Solar (LDK) downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • MasterCard (MA) raised to Outperform at Bear Stearns.
  • Monolithic Power (MPWR) started as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  • Moster Worldwide (MNST) started as Outperform at Bear Stearns.
  • Synchronoss Technologies (SNCR) raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
  • Ultimate Software (ULTI) started as Buy at Banc of America.
  • Wynn Resorts (WYNN) raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS; Susquehanna started as ‘Positive’.

Jon C. Ogg
December 20, 2007

Posted on: December 20, 2007 – 7:52 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , ,

Short Sellers Lighten Up On Growth Restaurant Chains (RRGB, PZZA, MSSR, BWLD, SBUX, CAKE, TXRH, CBRL, PFCB, PNRA)

We’ve started seeing some of the recent emptier pockets of Joe Q. Consumer, and after a warning yesterday out of McCormick & Schmicks’s we wanted to see how some of the NASDAQ growth restaurant chains were doing as far as short sellers were concerned.  Interstingly enough, of the ones we look at with regularity that get media coverage it seems like there is actually a drop in short selling from August to September.  Below is a list of companies in the sector along with the shares short in September and a percentage change from the August count of the short interest:

  • Red Robin Gourmet (RRGB)         3.304M  -1.13%
  • Papa John’s (PZZA)                         2.245M   -2.91%
  • McCormick & Schmick’s (MSSR)  1.497M   -6.22%
  • Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD)           3.293M    -6.4%
  • Starbucks (SBUX)                          25.725M   -6.98%
  • Cheesecake factory (CAKE)         11.636M   -7.55%
  • Texas Roadhouse (TXRH)                7.066M    -7.93%
  • CBRL Group (CBRL)                       4.727M  -14.92%
  • P.F.Chang’s (PFCB)                         7.051M  +2.54%
  • Panera Bread (PNRA)                      4.688M  +7.91%

Here are some key related articles that may give added insight:

Jon C. Ogg
September 26, 2007

Posted on: September 26, 2007 – 9:01 am in Food, Short Interest, , , , , , , , , ,

Buffalo Wild Wings Earnings Preview (BWLD)

Buffalo Wild Wings reports earnings after the close on Tuesday, with a conference call to follow.  First Call puts expectations at $0.22 EPS on revenues of just under $78 million.  Wall Street has gotten used to the company exceeding estimates for each of the last 3 quarters.

Buffalo Wild Wings has seen nearly a 20% pullback in its stock.  The stock was already well off of recent highs on its own, and the market slide last week exacerbated the drop.  This one is a bit harder to call on a fundamental basis because shares are still very close to average price targets from Wall Street analysts.  Its stock chart is also well outside of its uptrend, and much additional weakness on the chart here would signal that the company may change its name to Bearish Wild Wings.

If the company hits its $1.15 fiscal 2007 consensus earnings estimate, it trades at 34-times 2007 earnings; if it meets the $1.40 estimate for 2008, it trades at almost 28-times 2008 estimates.  The big wild card for the company has been its ability to keep material costs down (yep, chicken wings).  Of course that isn’t the only component at all since it sells burgers, ribs, salads, sandwiches, wraps and much more.  But food prices have been a challenge for all restaurant chains of late, so we’ll have to see how they have fared compared to elswhere in the restaurant chain sector.  Regardless of the current and forward P/E ratios sounding high, this one has 450+ locations in 37 states so it still has some room to grow and still have many franchise locations available.

This also carried a short interest of 3.7 million shares in July, but that is under the 4 million shares in June.  Many of these high-beta food chains tend to carry a higher short interest as many investors keep bets on for a shortfall that will take them back to normal market multiples. This is also one to watch as Jim Cramer developed a larger following in the stock before cooling to the sector recently, and here is the recent TheStreet.com article pointing to the company.

Jon C. Ogg
July 30, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: July 30, 2007 – 12:04 pm in Earnings, Food, ,

Top Earnings Next Week: July 30 & 31 (APC, FPL, HUM, MNST, OSTK, RSH, SUNW, VZ, AEP, ADP, AVR, BWLD, CMG, COH, RIO, FSLR, GM, IACI, IMCL, NVT, NMX, RNWK, RUTH, SIRI, UA, WFMI)

MONDAY, JULY 30, 2007
ABN AMRO (ABN)
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC)
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)
Cameco (CCJ)
FPL Group (FPL)
HSBC Holdings (HBC)
Humana (HUM)
Monster Worldwide (MNST)
Overstock.com (OSTK)
RadioShack Corp. (RSH)
Simon Property (SPG)
Statoil (STO)
Sun Microsystems (SUNW)
Principal Financial Group (PFG)
Tyson Foods (TSN)
Verizon (VZ)
Wm Wrigley (WWY)

TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2007
Alcan (AL)
American Capital Strategies (ACAS)
American Electric Power    (AEP)
Aon Corporation    (AOC)
Automatic Data Processing (ADP)
Aventine Renewable Energy (AVR)
Avon Products (AVP)
Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. (BWLD)
CBS Corp. (CBS)
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG)
Coach, Inc. (COH)
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce-CVRD    (RIO)
Crown Castle International (CCI)   
CryoLife, Inc. (CRY)
Denny’s Corp. (DENN)
DreamWorks Animation SKG (DWA)
Encore Acquisition Company (EAC)
FEI Company (FEIC)
First Solar (FSLR)
Fresh Del Monte (FDP)
Gartner (IT)
General Cable Corp. (BGC)
General Motors (GM)
Headwaters Inc. (HW)   
IAC/Interactive (IACI)
ImClone Systems (IMCL)
IndyMac Bancorp    (IMB)
Liz Claiborne (LIZ)
Marathon Oil (MRO)
MetLife Inc. (MET)
NAVTEQ Corp. (NVT)
NCR Corp. (NCR)
Nicor Inc. (GAS)
Northwest Airlines (NWA)
NYMEX Holdings (NMX)
PMI Group (PMI)
RealNetworks (RNWK)
RenaissanceRe Holdings (RNR)
Ruth’s Chris Steak House (RUTH)
SiRF Tech (SIRF)   
Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI)
St. Joe Company    (JOE)
Trimble Navigation (TRMB)
Tupperware Brands (TUP)
Turbochef (OVEN)
Under Armour (UA)
Valero Energy (VLO)
Vornado Realty Trust (VNO)
Waste Industries (WWIN)
Waste Management (WMI)
Watts Water Tech (WTS)
WebMD Health (WBMD)   
Whole Foods Market (WFMI)

We will be following up with many of these individually over the weekend and early in the week with full earnings previews.  Have a great weekend.

-The 24/7 Wall St., LLC team

Posted on: July 27, 2007 – 3:43 pm in Calendar, Earnings, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pre-Market Stock News (June 18, 2007)

(AA) An ALCOA bid from BHP may be kindled according to numerous M&A reports.
(ADVNA) Advanta trades ex-split to reflect a 3-2 stock split.
(AGU) Agrium said earnings will be at or above the upper end of its $1.45 to $1.55 range.
(BBI) Blockbuster is going to favor the Blu-Ray HD discs.
(BNHNA) Benihana $0.35 EPS vs $0.30e.
(BWLD) Buffalo Wild Wings trades ex-split to reflect a 2-1 stock split.
(CEPH) Cephalon received FDA Marketing approval of Nuvigil for excessive sleepiness.
(CVTX) CV Therapeutics traded up on Cramer recommendation.
(DJ) Dow Jones may get a rival bid from Pearson and General Electric.
(ECIL) ECI Telecom in discussions for potential takeovers at $10.00 per share.
(ENCY) Encysive Pharma trading down 50%; announced third ‘approvable’letter from FDA for Thelin for treating pulmonary arterial hypertension, but it did not demonstrate the evidence of effectiveness needed for approval and may have to drastically cut costs.
(ESC) Emeritus Corp announces a 10.5 million share common stock offering; 9 million shares were from the company and 1.5 million from selling shareholders.
(FRN) Friendly Ice Cream going private at $15.50.
(FTEK) Fuel-Tech gets two orders totaling $2 million.
(GCO) Genesco gets $54.50 per share offer and buyout from Finish Line.
(KERX) Keryx Bio announced its CFO is resigning.
(LXRX) Lexicon Pharma secured a major investment in the company as a two part investment: $205 million and $60 million.
(MSFT) Microsoft making investment in Chinese television and media makers to change IPTV to Mediaroom.
(NVDA) NVIDIA noted as speculative chip play by Cramer.
(OBAS) Optibase won encoder pact from Huawei for IPTV.
(PAY) Verifone announced a $275 million senior convertible note offering.
(THRM) Thermage says FDA clears indication for Thermacool system.
(VICL) Vical licensee AnGes MG announces positive results of Phase 3 angiogenesis trial in Japan.
(VRAZ) Veraz platform chosen by Golden Telecom for an upgrade of its TDM network to a next-generation network.
(XFML) Xinhua Finance Media wins contract to re-brand Hebei Movie & Drama TV channel.

Jon C. Ogg
June 18, 2007

Posted on: June 18, 2007 – 6:53 am in Pre-Market Activity, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cramer Eats Wings & Beans

On today’s Stop Trading on CNBC, Jim Cramer came out discussing Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD-NASDAQ) after the stock rose more than 14% to a new 52-week and all-time high after the company beat earnings estimates.  The company makes one-third of its money from beer and buffalo sauce, and he can’t imagine why 1/3 of the float was short.  But Chipotle (CMG) is the one he said is the stock of the day, and may be a multi-year grower.

He also said the market is remarkable and we all came in too bearish at the start of the year.  Cramer still thinks the market is decelerating inside the US and the rest of the world is rising while we are not. 

Cramer called Liz Claiborne (LIZ) as the worst retail conference call of the quarter, same as I noted yesterday.

Jon C. Ogg
May 2, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers

Posted on: May 2, 2007 – 1:57 pm in Cramer, , ,