Panera, Chipotle And Buffalo Wild Wings On The Move

Three major fast food chains reported first quarter financial results after the market closed on Tuesday. Let’s take a look into the numbers.

Panera’s Comps Outperform The Industry

Panera Bread Co PNRA posted first quarter earnings of $1.56 per share, $0.06 above the Street’s consensus. Revenue of $685.15 million, up 5.7 percent year-over-year beat estimates by $11.03 million.

Shares were up about 2 percent in after-hours trading. Management also raised its full-year EPS guidance to $6.50-$6.70, up from $6.33-$6.52; consensus stands at $6.55. The team also boosted its same-store sales outlook for company-owned stores to 4-5 percent, up from 3.5-4.5 percent.

Also helping the stock was a 6.2 percent rise in comps for company-operated stores, which situates the company’s growth well above its industry’s average of 0.4 percent this quarter.

Chipotle Pays The Price Of E. Coli

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. CMG seems to have disappointed investors, as th stock was trading down more than 1.75 percent in after-hours. While EPS of $0.88 came in $0.07 ahead of the Street’s consensus, revenue of $834.5 million, down 23.4 percent year-over-year, missed expectations by $45.71 million..

Investors were also dissatisfied with the announcement that comparable restaurant sales dropped 29.7 percent over the first quarter – worse than the expected 28 percent. Restaurant-level operating margin fell to 6.8 percent, down from 27.5 percent a year ago.

Chipotle didn't issue specific guidance for the ongoing quarter of the full year.

Buffalo’s Had Its Wings Cut

A company that saw its stock post even larger losses was Buffalo Wild Wings BWLD, down 11.6 percent after-hours on a top and bottom line miss. EPS of $1.73 and revenue of $508.3 million both fell short of expectations, by $0.04 and $21.99 million, respectively.

Comparable-store sales turned negative over the first quarter, falling 1.7 percent in company-owned restaurants and 2.4 percent in franchised restaurants. Guidance was also discouraging: The company expects full year EPS of $5.65-$5.85, well below the $6.10 consensus.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.