TXRH

10 Bucks per Hour; What It Really Means

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Source: US Department of Labor, Walmart Walmart (WMT) is quite savvy. The big box retailer announced February 19 it would raise the minimum wage for all of its US workers to $9 per hour in April of this year and at least $10 per hour by next February. The move comes amid ongoing public scrutiny of its labor practices, elevated worker turnover, and general malaise among the ranks on social media platforms. At face value, the news headlines show Walmart caving to public pressure, and a win for big labor, but in reality, the retailing giant is merely doing what good businesses do – pleasing customers (which are its workers, too) and widening its economic moat. Hiking wages accomplishes both. … Read more

Holy Guacamole! McDonald’s Wishing It Had Kept Chipotle

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Very few investors probably remember that Chipotle (CMG) used to be owned in part by McDonald’s (MCD). McDonald’s had originally taken a stake in Chipotle in February 1998, when Chipotle had but 14 restaurants in Denver. The maker of the Big Mac would go on to own 90% of the subsidiary and eventually spin it off in an initial public offering in January 2006. McDonald’s would receive ~$1.5 billion from the sale, but with Chipotle’s market capitalization now at over $20 billion, it’s clear the burger-and-fries behemoth exited way too early. The most recently-reported results by both restaurants tell the diverging story quite well. McDonald’s reported relatively disappointing second-quarter results Tuesday. The performance can best be described as flat. Global … Read more

Valuentum Economic Castleâ„¢ Rating Update

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Read: Keeping the Horse Before the Cart: Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ Rating The Economic Castle Focuses on the Magnitude of Economic Value Creation The Valuentum Economic Castle™ rating is an enhancement of the competitive advantage framework (commonly known as economic moat analysis) that has become widespread and ubiquitous within the investing world. Whereas an economic moat framework evaluates a firm on the basis of the sustainability and durability of its competitive advantages, Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ rating evaluates a firm on the basis of the firm’s future economic profit spread (return on invested capital less its weighted average cost of capital). The companies with the strongest Valuentum Economic Castle™ ratings are poised to generate the most economic value for shareholders in the … Read more

Restaurant Industry Update

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The fast-food (quick-service) breakfast wars have intensified. It has become a high-stakes game for all participants, and most have gone all-in to capture market share, to use poker parlance. The NPD Group, a leading global information firm, noted that the pace of expansion for fast-food breakfast across the restaurant industry has been a key bright spot, and executives across the industry are taking note: Quick service, which accounts for about 80 percent of total restaurant morning meals, showed the strongest increase in breakfast visits of all restaurant segments with a 4 percent increase in the year ending December 2013 period compared to year ago, reports NPD CREST, which every day tracks how consumers use restaurants and other foodservice outlets. Morning … Read more

Dividend Increases for the Week Ending February 22

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This week was jam-packed with companies raising their quarterly cash dividends. Below we provide a list of firms that upped their dividends for the week ending February 22. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports, please click here. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF): now $0.20 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.175. Analog Devices (ADI): now $0.34 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.30. Chemung Financial (CHMG): now $0.26 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.25. Chesapeake Lodging Trust (CHSP): now $0.24 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.22. Cheviot Financial Corp. (CHEV): now $0.09 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.08 Corrections Corp of America … Read more

Cheesecake Factory and BJ’s Restaurants Buck the Earlier Trend

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We’ve received fairly consistent guidance from the casual dining space recently, with chains generally anticipating 1.5% to 3% same-store sales growth, countered with higher input costs. This is by no means incredibly bullish for the US economy, but we are happy to see firms looking for growth (even though the broader signals point to mediocre expansion). We aren’t fans of the space in particular, but if we see results accelerate (or slow) materially, it could be a sign of broader strength (or weakness). Earlier this week we examined the solid results and guidance from casual diners Texas Roadhouse (click ticker for report: ) and Red Robin (click ticker for report: ). The results from the Cheesecake Factory (click ticker for … Read more

Is a Casual Dining Recovery Underway?

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On Tuesday, casual dining firms Texas Roadhouse (click ticker for report: ) and Red Robin (click ticker for report: ) announced fourth-quarter results that were better than consensus expectations. This begs the question: could a prolonged slump in casual dining be nearing an end? Let’s take a look. Texas Roadhouse For the fourth quarter, Texas Roadhouse posted revenue growth of 12% year-over-year to $310 million, well above consensus estimates. The firm earned $0.19 per share, a 12% year-over-year increase and a penny better than consensus estimates. The chain also posted same-store sales growth of 4.4% at company restaurants and 4.5% at franchise owned restaurants. The firm was able to leverage this sales growth into operating-margin expansion of 70+ basis points … Read more

Search Dividend Reports by Company Name: Q to Z

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Going forward, please use the ‘Symbol’ search box to download stock and dividend reports of companies you are interested in. The ‘Symbol’ search box can be found in our website header. Image shown from above. Use the active search box in the website header above. Learn more about your membership >>  Note: We have now discontinued this list. Please use the ‘Symbol’ search box in the website header for stock and dividend reports. Please read about our Valuentum Dividend Cushion score (ratio) here. Just having access to this valuable metric alone could save your income portfolio thousands of dollars! The past meets the future as we showcase the Valuentum Dividend Cushion scores of Dividend Aristocrats in this article (click here). The dividend reports below … Read more