NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Panera Bread Co. was upgraded to "buy" from "hold" by Wunderlich Securities early Wednesday morning.a A price target was set at $185. The firm said it raised the retail bakery operating company's rating because traffic has strengthened and management is investing in future growth. Shares of Panera closed up 2.51% to $162.72 yesterday. Must Read: Warren Buffett's 25 Favorite Stocks STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. TheStreet Ratings team rates PANERA BREAD CO as a Buy with a ratings score of B-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate PANERA BREAD CO (PNRA) a BUY. This is driven by a number of strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, reasonable valuation levels, good cash flow from operations, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 5.8%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 7.1%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share. Net operating cash flow has increased to $82.06 million or 27.03% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -4.56%. PNRA's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.14 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Although the company had a strong debt-to-equity ratio, its quick ratio of 0.88 is somewhat weak and could be cause for future problems. Current return on equity exceeded its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a clear sign of strength within the company. In comparison to other companies in the Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, PANERA BREAD CO has underperformed in comparison with the industry average, but has greatly exceeded that of the S&P 500. You can view the full analysis from the report here: PNRA Ratings Report STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.
Click to view a price quote on PNRA. Click to research the Leisure industry.
from Latest TSC Headlines http://ift.tt/1oz2BLl
No comments:
Post a Comment