Piper Jaffray Likes MRT, RUTH And BBRG In Restaurants
Piper Jaffray has highlighted Morton's Restaurant Group (NYSE: MRT), Ruth's Hospitality Group (NASDAQ: RUTH) and Bravo Brio Restaurant Group (NASDAQ: BBRG) in its look at the restaurant industry.
Says Piper Jaffray, in its report, “Travel data showed continued improvement in April, which we highlight as a positive update for those concepts benefiting from, and exposed to, our "high-end" consumer recovery thesis. Steadily improving, highly-correlated industry metrics, such as hotel RevPAR, remain in positive territory with 8.0% y/y growth in April, and luxury hotel RevPAR at 8.1% y/y which again outpaced overall RevPAR (albeit by a smaller margin than in previous months). We believe these results suggest that recent strength in same-store sales for our higher-end covered restaurant names may have continued into 2Q11. We view exposure to MRT, RUTH, and BBRG shares as the best way to capitalize on improving travel trends.”
MRT closed yesterday at $7.40 with RUTH and BBRG at $4.99 and $20.50, respectively.
