2023-07-18 12:53:37 ET
Truist singled out two restaurant stocks as potential candidates to see a Q2 earnings sales beat based on recent card data.
Analyst Jake Bartlett said McDonald's ( NYSE: MCD ) is setting up for a potential strong sales beat and has seen a slight acceleration to end the quarter. Of note, the Truist Card Data adjusted estimate for Q2 U.S. McDonald's system sales of $13.9B is +3.5% above consensus. Truist now sees Q2 U.S. same-store sales growth of 10.0% vs. the consensus mark of +8.9%.
The firm believes McDonald's ( MCD ) U.S. same-store sales momentum is being driven by strong marketing, including the successful Grimace Birthday Meal launched on June 12 and proceeded to go viral on social media. Truist has a Buy rating on MCD and new price target of $335.
Shake Shack ( SHAK ) is also called out as a potential earnings star, driven by strong end to the quarter. The Truist Card Data adjusted estimate for Q2 sales of $269M is +1.8% above the consensus estimate. Truist sees Q2 same-store sales growth for SHAK of +5.5% vs. +4.7% and the company's own guidance of low to mid single digits. Truist has a Buy rating on Shake Shack ( SHAK ) and a boosted price target of $90.
McDonald's ( MCD ) was down 0.56% on Tuesday at 12:50 p.m., while Shake Shack ( SHAK ) was up 0.88% . McDonald's ( MCD ) will step into the earnings confessional on July 27, while Shake Shack is due to report in August 3. MCD has seen 23 of the last 24 analysts revisions in the last 90 days to be to the upside, while SHAK is evenly split with 8 EPS estimate hikes and 8 EPS estimate drops over the 90 days.
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- Seeking Alpha's Quant Ratings across all restaurant stocks
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Restaurant check: Grimace boost for McDonald's, Shake Shack flying strong into earnings