BurgerKing posts
FeedPosted Oct 7th 2009 8:30AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, McDonald's (MCD), Yum Brands (YUM), Wendy's Intl (WEN), Burger King Hldgs (BKC)
Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), which competes with McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Burger King (NYSE: BKC), and Wendy's/Arby's Group (NYSE: WEN) for the right to feed consumers on the go around the world, issued a Q3 report after the bell on Tuesday that was decent in many respects. Earnings per share on an adjusted basis increased over 20% to 70 cents. This performance absolutely embarrassed the analysts, who were looking for a mere 58 cents per share according to our earnings preview.
So, that was one of the decent parts. Actually, I'd say it was a little more than decent. But, unfortunately, the top line didn't grow. Total revenues actually declined 2%.
Continue reading Yum! Brands beats estimates in Q3, but Pizza Hut is not so yummy
Posted Oct 5th 2009 3:00PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, McDonald's (MCD), Yum Brands (YUM), Wendy's Intl (WEN), Burger King Hldgs (BKC)

At the time of this writing, shares of
Yum! Brands (NYSE:
YUM), a company that competes with
McDonald's (NYSE:
MCD),
Burger King (NYSE:
BKC), and
Wendy's/Arby's Group (NYSE:
WEN), were trading higher by well over 4%. Volume was doing well, too. Interestingly enough, Yum! Brands will be reporting Q3 earnings on Tuesday, October 6, after the bell. Does this mean that you should buy in ahead of the release?
On the surface, I suppose the market is telling you that Yum! Brands would indeed make a good earnings trade. Not only is the stock up nicely this afternoon, but it isn't too far from a 52-week high.
Continue reading Buy Yum! Brands ahead of earnings?
Posted Jul 15th 2009 9:00AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, McDonald's (MCD), Yum Brands (YUM), Wendy's Intl (WEN), Burger King Hldgs (BKC)
Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), a chain of restaurant trademarks that competes with McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Burger King (NYSE: BKC), and Wendy's/Arby's Group (NYSE: WEN), delivered up a nice hot serving of earnings on Tuesday after the bell.
For the second quarter, net sales dropped 7%. Earnings on an adjusted basis increased 10% to 50 cents per share. This was actually much better than analysts' expectations. Wall Street was only counting on 43 cents per share, according to Bloomberg. However, the market is always looking forward, so there was a bit of bad news in terms of guidance pertaining to same-store sales.
Continue reading Yum! Brands: Was the Q2 report hot enough for the market's taste?
Posted Jun 24th 2009 3:30PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, McDonald's (MCD), Yum Brands (YUM), Wendy's Intl (WEN), Burger King Hldgs (BKC)
Sonic (NASDAQ:
SONC), a fast-food chain whose colleagues include
Burger King (NYSE:
BKC),
McDonald's (NYSE:
MCD),
Wendy's/Arby's Group (NYSE:
WEN), and
Yum! Brands (NYSE:
YUM), reported earnings for the
third quarter on Tuesday after the bell. The shares have done well today on the news. As I write this, Sonic's stock is up well over 12% in afternoon trading. Volume is great. Do you want to get in on the action?
Sonic said it earned an adjusted 24 cents per share. This article reported expectations as being $0.20 per share, so management beat the bottom line by a nice amount. We'll throw that result on the positive side of the line.
Continue reading Sonic beats Wall Street, but sales are sagging
Posted Apr 30th 2009 3:20PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Starbucks (SBUX)
Starbucks (NASDAQ:
SBUX) reported earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Today, shares are up almost 10% on active volume in early afternoon trading as I write this. What does the market see in the numbers that is making it so happy?
Well, it's difficult to say precisely. As we all know, Starbucks has been having its problems, and data in Q2 indicate that the status quo essentially remains. Sales: down almost 8%. Operating income: down 77%. Adjusted earnings per share: down two pennies to $0.16. Cash from operations: down 6%. Same-store sales: down 8%. See what I mean? I hate using the word "down" so many times.
Continue reading Starbucks perks up on Q2 beat, but I'm not convinced
Posted Apr 30th 2009 9:00AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, McDonald's (MCD), Yum Brands (YUM), Wendy's Intl (WEN), Burger King Hldgs (BKC)
Burger King (NYSE: BKC), a fast-food joint that competes with McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), and Wendy's/Arby's Group (NYSE: WEN), issued its Q3 report on Wednesday. The top line didn't do much, rising only 1% in the face of difficulties with currency translations. Earnings came in at 34 cents per share. That was one penny better than Wall Street's expectations, according to Reuters.
It's always good to beat the earnings call. But Burger King didn't get much mileage out of that victory. The stock actually sold off 3% on the news, closing yesterday at a fresh 52-week low of $16.55. The big catalyst was the conservative fiscal-year guidance.
Continue reading Burger King beats expectations, but will swine flu affect the fiscal year?
Posted Mar 2nd 2009 5:30PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, McDonald's (MCD), Yum Brands (YUM), Wendy's Intl (WEN), Burger King Hldgs (BKC)
Wendy's/Arby's Group (NYSE: WEN), a fast-food company that competes with McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD), Burger King (NYSE: BKC), and Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), reported earnings for the fourth quarter on Monday. Call me unimpressed.
The chain earned $0.05 per share on an adjusted basis. According to this article, the results matched expectations. I don't begrudge Wendy's/Arby's for doing that in such a tough marketplace. But I do begrudge the weakness in the Arby's brand. Systemwide same-store sales at Wendy's were up 3.7% in Q4, while systemwide comps at Arby's were down a terrible 8.5%. Arby's is having problems attracting people with its current menu portfolio. The value menu at Wendy's, on the other hand, seems to be a strategy that is working. Customers are coming in, ready to get a deal on those delicious, although not-so-healthy, square-shaped burgers. So, if the company wants to improve its situation, it's going to have to get serious about fixing Arby's.
Continue reading Is Wendy's/Arby's Group's stock as healthy as its menu?
Posted Feb 6th 2009 3:00PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, McDonald's (MCD), Wendy's Intl (WEN), Burger King Hldgs (BKC)
Burger King (NYSE: BKC), a famous fast-food joint that competes with McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), and Wendy's/Arby's Group (NYSE: WEN), reported earnings for the fiscal second quarter on Thursday. Net sales decreased 3%, and net income dipped 8% to $0.33 per diluted share. The call was for $0.37 per share.
It's good to be the King, but it's not good to miss your earnings forecast. Yes, we shouldn't always pay attention to the analysts and their game, and it's certainly difficult these days to make forecasts anyway, but it's always nice to see a company at least hit the ballpark in terms of consensus.
The press release cited concerns with currency translations, so that's something for shareholders to keep in mind. But the release also cited something that I think is one of the best elements of the Burger King story: its marketing campaigns. Management was happy to congratulate itself on being highlighted by trade journal Ad Week. I know, it's just corporate bragging in an earnings document, who needs that, right? While that may be true, I do honestly believe that Burger King's TV spots have definitely built a loyal following among the valuable youthful demos, and that the campaigns, which have included that creepy royal mascot, are indeed responsible for growth. And those Whopper Virgins commercials were pretty funny, too.
Continue reading Burger King misses in Q2 -- is stock a buy?
Posted Feb 4th 2009 3:45PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, McDonald's (MCD), Yum Brands (YUM), Wendy's Intl (WEN), Burger King Hldgs (BKC)
Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), whose competitive colleagues include McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD), Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC), and Wendy's Arby's Group (NYSE: WEN), reported earnings for Q4 and the full fiscal year on Tuesday after the bell.
Net sales increased 4% for the quarter to $3.4 billion, and earnings per share on an adjusted basis went up 5% to $0.46. According to the earnings preview, sales essentially met Wall Street's view, but net income was beat by a penny. For the year, Yum! saw a net sales increase of 8% to $11.3 billion, and its adjusted bottom line increased by 14% to $1.91 per share. Once again, sales were in-line, and earnings beat by the proverbial penny.
Continue reading Yum! Brands had a decent Q4 -- buy the stock now?
Posted Jan 16th 2009 3:01PM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Burger King Hldgs (BKC)

In one of the strangest marketing promotions I've ever heard of,
Burger King Holdings (NYSE:
BKC) was offering a free Whopper to anyone who de-friended ten people.
But the promotion ran afoul of Facebook rules.
According to
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), "Each time someone de-friended someone else through a special application, Burger King published an update on both people's Facebook pages. That helped spread the word -- but ran afoul of the site's protocol."
The campaign had slogans like "Friendship is strong, but the Whopper is stronger," and inspired thousands of members to dump friends in exchange for free food.
It seems incredibly socially awkward: Wouldn't it create some tension when you see that people are deleting you as a friend? People delete friends on Facebook all the time, but there's no announcement on the site and the only way you'd find out is if you went to look at the person's profile and noticed that they weren't your friend anymore.
But it's a shame that Facebook shut down the promotion: If users want to lose friends over Whoppers, why should Facebook care?
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