Fast food chain El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ: LOCO) will be reporting earnings this Thursday afternoon. Here’s what to look for.
El Pollo Loco beat analysts’ revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $126.2 million, up 5.9% year on year. It was a stunning quarter for the company, with a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a solid beat of analysts’ same-store sales 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, the market is expecting El Pollo Loco’s revenue to grow 3.5% year on year, in line with the 3% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business will stay the course heading into earnings. El Pollo Loco has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates multiple times over the last two years.
Looking at El Pollo Loco’s peers in the traditional fast food segment, some have already reported their Q2 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Starbucks’s revenues decreased 1.4% year on year, beating analysts’ expectations by 1.5%, and Yum China reported revenues up 12.6%, topping estimates by 4.2%. Starbucks traded up 1.6% following the results while Yum China was also up 5.1%.
Read our full analysis of Starbucks’s results here and Yum China’s results here.
Investors in the traditional fast food segment have had steady hands going into earnings, with share prices up 1.7% on average over the last month. El Pollo Loco is up 1.5% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $18.70 (compared to the current share price of $16.55).
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