Restaurant stocks: Investing in fast food & higher-end chains

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The restaurant sector has taken a bit of a beating in the past few months as consumers have opted out of certain quick service restaurants looking for better value as many of them have raised prices. While many of the stocks in this sector have dipped, is it time to buy them back up?

Stephens research Analyst Jim Salera joins Market Domination to give insight into the best ways to play the restaurant sector amidst some current dips from companies in the sector.

"I think what you really have to look at when you think about restaurants is what consumer the concept is focused on. And so you have high-end consumer restaurant concepts. If you think about Sweetgreen (SG), Cava (CAVA), that have really performed exceptionally well this year and have been really strong stocks," Salera says. "And then you have others that are more focused towards middle to lower income consumers or traditional fast food or Wendy's (WEN) or McDonald's (MCD) that have seen a little bit more pressure."

Salera believes "Papa John's (PZZA) is particularly attractive" because of the new CEO Todd Penegor, who came with experience from Wendy's, who has already set new goals for the company, including plans to "re-invigorate the franchisee base and get that reoriented to accelerating unit growth, and then you're also seeing a lot of new promotional offerings in the channel. That kind of couple relative value while still maintaining, a quality value prop as well."

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This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino