Buffalo Wild Wings: Stock Winners

NEW YORK, N.Y. (TheStreet) -- Shares of Buffalo Wild Wings(BWLD) jumped 4.8% Wednesday afternoon after the wing-and-beer purveyor grew quarterly profits by 31%.

Shares changed hands at rapid speed with more than 1.7 million shares in play, compared with the 30-day trailing average volume of just 389,000 shares.

Buffalo Wild Wings said late Tuesday its comparable same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least one year, declined 0.1% at company-owned restaurants last quarter, and 0.7% at franchised locations. Restaurants' comps figures are closely watched by investors because they demonstrate the sustainability of store traffic and customer volume in well-established locations.

Reporting a decrease in comps would normally be viewed as a negative, especially in light of fellow restaurant chains' strong performance by that metric in recent months. But analysts expected a wider decline from Buffalo Wild Wings after the key metric fell 3.7% in April; comps were flat in June.

"We thought comps progressed, and the magnitude of improvement was better than expected," Lynne Collier, managing director at Sterne Agee, told TheStreet. She expected Buffalo Wild Wings to post a 2.5% decrease in comps for the recent quarter.

Panera Bread(PNRA), which also reported stronger-than-expected financials after the closing bell Tuesday, said it grew comps 9.9% in the second quarter, year-over-year. Earlier Tuesday, pizza purveyor Domino's Pizza(DPZ) posted comps growth of 8.8%, a strong number but disappointing to investors who were looking for the figure to come in around 10%.

Restaurant Stock Winners, Losers: Panera and Buffalo Wild

Panera Bread and Buffalo Wild Wings post strong financials -- although a closer look at the all-important same-store sales metric delivers a mixed plate.

Chipotle Mexican Grill(CMG) recently booked comps growth of 8.7% year-over-year, putting the burrito chain "at the top of the pack in industry leading comps," according to Oppenheimer analyst Matthew J. DiFrisco.