Back a few weeks ago I wrote this:
If Zoes is back down where it was at the Feb 11 stock market crash bottom, the question isn’t “Did it make a double bottom?” (Who cares?), The question has to be "Has whatever made Zoes stock crash a second time like that, all the way down to the Feb 11 bottom, when the rest of the market is way up…has that bad news changed? If not Zoes may certainly continue on down.
and this:
And now that I’ve read the entire thread, 4% same store sales growth certainly doesn’t warrant a PE of 84 or 168. No way. Just saying…be cautious!
But it’s worse than that. This is from today’s NY Times:
To help compensate for sagging profits, many restaurants have been raising prices, even as the cost of food has declined. For instance, Zoe’s Kitchen, a Mediterranean-inspired chain of more than 150 stores, said its (same store sales) had grown 4 percent. But more than 3 percent of that gain came from price increases. Slightly less than 1 percent of its sales growth came from… more customers.
There’s a limit to how much any restaurant can raise prices when food prices are falling.
the restaurant industry, which has blamed a crash in food prices that has made groceries cheaper for its woes. Egg prices, for instance, hit a 10-year low this summer, and beef prices are lower than they have been in more than three years.
Saul