Wunderlich Securities Sees Good Things Ahead for Panera Bread Co.

In a report published Tuesday, Wunderlich Securities analyst Robert M. Derrington reiterated a Hold rating and $190.00 price target on Panera Bread Co. PNRA. In the report, Wunderlich Securities noted, “We believe Q114 (Mar) couldn't end soon enough for most restaurant companies in our research universe including Panera Bread (PNRA). While winter's frigid temps chilled industry sales through Q114, March period SSS improved modestly as Black Box SSS index improved 140bps to +0.7% from -0.7% in Feb. Similarly, we believe Panera's March period SSS also improved, to modestly positive vs. -2.2% in the first 48 days of Q114 aided by improvements in weather, ops, throughput, and ad spend. As those same factors add traction to the Panera 2.0 rollout, we project sys-SSS to further improve: from relatively flat in Q1 to +2.5% in Q2, +4.2% in Q3, and +4.5% in Q4. Ongoing risk of margin pressure from new service initiatives adds risk to our EPS, contributing to our Hold rating.” Panera Bread Co. closed on Monday at $168.41.