Leave it to California Pizza Kitchen
If it sounds familiar, it's because the scene was duplicated three months ago. This time around, the company is looking to earn either $0.29 or $0.30 a share for the June quarter. That range is a penny better than the original guidance issued back in May.
Same-store sales rose by a healthy 4.8%. That's an amazing feat when one considers that comps soared 8.6% higher in the second quarter of 2005. In other words, the typical store rang up 13.8% more in sales than it did during the same period two years ago.
California Pizza Kitchen owns most of its 194 restaurants. In a quick-service world where franchising is the expansion vehicle of choice, CPK's hands-on approach comes in handy when things are going well. Shareholders can take advantage of the chain's store-level popularity a little better that way.
I have described CPK as Cheesecake Factory
CPK is a class of its own these days. There's no topping the topping specialist.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz always seems to have a restaurant stock or two in his portfolio, and that happens to include Cheesecake Factory. He is a member of the Rule Breakers newsletter team. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .