Sonic Corp. (NASDAQ: SONC) is set to report its fiscal first-quarter financial results after the markets close on Tuesday. The consensus estimates call for $0.23 in earnings per share (EPS) on $144.42 million in revenue. In the same period of the previous year, the restaurant operator posted EPS of $0.18 and revenue of $139.86 million.
The company recently announced the expansion of two existing franchise agreements and the addition of two new franchise agreements for a total of 33 new drive-ins to California over the next seven years.
The 33 drive-ins are planned for multiple markets across the state: 11 in Sacramento, 12 in the San Francisco Bay Area, three in west Los Angeles, five between Bakersfield and Stockton, and two in the Palm Springs area.
All planned drive-ins are expected to be serving customers by 2022, bringing over 1,500 new jobs to the state over seven years. There are currently 68 open drive-ins operating in California, and this announcement would bring the total of upcoming drive-ins to 101.
A few analysts recently weighed in on Sonic prior to its earnings report:
- Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating.
- Stephens reiterated a Buy rating with a $34 price target.
- Piper Jaffray reiterated an Overweight rating but lowered its price target to $37 from $42.
- Sterne Agee CRT has a Buy rating but lowered its price target to $34 from $41.
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Over the past 52 weeks, Sonic has outperformed the market, with the stock up 15.7%, as of Monday’s close.
Shares of Sonic were trading at $30.98 Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $33.23 and a 52-week trading range of $22.72 to $36.73.
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