Fast food chain El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ: LOCO) will be reporting results this Thursday after market close. Here’s what investors should know.
El Pollo Loco beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 0.6% last quarter, reporting revenues of $125.8 million, up 3% year on year. It was a very strong quarter for the company, with a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates.
Is El Pollo Loco a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.
This quarter, analysts are expecting El Pollo Loco’s revenue to grow 3% year on year to $124 million, improving from its flat revenue in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.21 per share.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. El Pollo Loco has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates twice over the last two years.
Looking at El Pollo Loco’s peers in the restaurants segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Domino's delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 6.2%, beating analysts’ expectations by 0.9%, and The Cheesecake Factory reported revenues up 4.8%, falling short of estimates by 0.5%. Domino's traded up 2.2% following the results.
Read our full analysis of Domino’s results here and The Cheesecake Factory’s results here.
Investors in the restaurants segment have had fairly steady hands going into earnings, with share prices down 1.4% on average over the last month. El Pollo Loco’s stock price was unchanged during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $14 (compared to the current share price of $9.75).
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