Wendy`s Co - Class A

Wendy's posted a cleaner-than-expected second quarter, with adjusted diluted EPS of $0.29 beating the $0.25 consensus estimate by roughly 14%, even as revenue slipped 1.7% year over year to $560.93 million, edging past the $558.03 million forecast by just over half a percent. The headline beat masked a difficult domestic backdrop: U.S. same-restaurant sales fell 3.6%, pressuring company-operated restaurant margins by 30 basis points to 16.2% amid commodity and labor cost inflation. The earnings outperformance was largely powered by cost discipline, with lower G&A expense, reduced reorganization costs, and trimmed advertising investment lifting operating profit 4.8% to $104.26 million. International operations offered a bright counterpoint, with systemwide sales growing 8.7% and same-restaurant sales up 1.8%. Still, management took a sharp knife to full-year guidance, now projecting adjusted EPS of $0.82 to $0.89, down from a prior range of $0.92 to $0.98, and global systemwide sales growth of negative 5.0% to negative 3.0%, with interim CEO Ken Cook openly acknowledging dissatisfaction with U.S. performance and pledging a simplified marketing approach for the back half of 2025.