Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of Jack in the Box's
What analysts say:
- Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Jack in the Box with eight of 15 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Jack in the Box as much as competitor Sonic overall. Six out of 17 analysts rate Sonic a buy compared to five of 15 for Jack in the Box. Analysts still rate the stock a Hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
- Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $495.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 5.3% from the year-ago quarter.
- Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of 40 cents per share. Estimates range from 34 cents to 47 cents.
What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock with 94.9% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All Stars with 90.2% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Jack in the Box and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 149 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Jack in the Box, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.
Management:
Jack in the Box's income has fallen year over year by an average of 23.5%. Revenue has fallen in the past two quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.4 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue fell 4.6% while cost of sales fell 1.9% to $434.8 million from a year earlier.
Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.
Quarter |
Q2 |
Q1 |
Q4 |
Q3 |
Gross Margin |
13.9% |
14.6% |
14.7% |
15.7% |
Operating Margin |
2.8% |
8.2% |
0.9% |
8% |
Net Margin |
1.3% |
4.9% |
0.7% |
4.6% |
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