Why Buffalo Wild Wings Has More Room to Fly
While Fools should generally take the opinion of Wall Street with a grain of salt, it's not a bad idea to take a closer look at particularly stock-shaking analyst upgrades and downgrades -- just in case their reasoning behind the call makes sense.
What: Shares of Buffalo Wild Wings climbed 3% today after Wedbush boosted their price target on the restaurant operator.
So what: Wedbush analyst Nick Setyan maintained his outperform rating on the stock, but the new price target of $135 per share (from $125) represents about 23% worth of upside to its Friday close. While you might be nervous about the stock's red-hot price action in 2013, Setyan believes that reasonable comparable expectations, coupled with a stable wing cost environment, gives investors plenty of upside to look forward to.
Now what: According to Setyan's channel checks, same-store sales growth for the third quarter is currently on pace to come in above the consensus of 2.8%.
"We note a reacceleration in traffic growth following a disappointing 1.5% QTD comp in July as the start of the football season, combined with increased success and buzz around specific teams in company-owned markets as well as effective traffic-driving specials and promos, has led to an increase in SSS growth in August and September," said Setyan. "We also note an incremental 1% menu price increase that took effect July 15th, as well as an additional week of NFL and NCAA football games as further drivers of upside."
With the stock hitting a new 52-week high and trading at a forward P/E of 25, however, I'd wait for a wider margin of safety before betting too much on that bullishness.
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The article Why Buffalo Wild Wings Has More Room to Fly originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Brian Pacampara has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Buffalo Wild Wings. The Motley Fool owns shares of Buffalo Wild Wings. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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