Notable news items from the past few days and price action from Friday’s trading session.
- SBUX was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. The price target is now $40.
- SBUX CEO Howard Schultz features in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, published today, and stated that the company has no intention of imposing across-the-board price increases at this point. The company has coffee locked for fiscal 2011. He also described MCD’s impact on Starbucks’ coffee business as “de minimis”.
- EAT upgraded from Buy to Neutral at UBS. The price target was raised to $30 from $23.
- MCD Japan saw February same-store sales rise 4.3%.
- An article in USA Today describes how calorie labeling doesn’t change fast-food orders.
- TAST gained 5.5% on strong volume on Friday, followed by CMG which gained 3.3% on steady volume to round out a solid week for the burrito chain’s stock. On a one-month and three-month basis, CMG had underperformed its peers’ average price performance as commodity and labor concerns weighed on sentiment.
- DIN gained 2.4% on accelerating volume during Friday’s trading session.
- CBRL continues to feel the pressure from gas prices, declining another 2.2% on accelerating volume. DRI and MSSR also declined on accelerating volume on Friday.
Howard Penney
Managing Director