Panera Bread (PNRA) Stock Closes Down, Earnings Estimates Lowered at Barclays

Panera Bread (PNRA) stock closed down after Barclays lowered its earning estimates for the restaurant on Tuesday.
By Annie Palmer ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Panera Bread (PNRA)  closed down by 0.96% to $206.70 on Tuesday, after Barclays lowered its 2016 earnings estimates on the St. Louis-based bakery-cafe to $6.59 per share from $6.60 per share.  

The firm maintained its "equal weight" rating and $121 price target on the stock.

Barclays called Panera Bread its top pick in fast casual restaurants, McDonald's (MCD) its favorite in quick service restaurants and Texas Roadhouse (TXRH) its top stock in casual dining restaurants.

Although the firm said it's cautious on the sector near-term, Barclays believes several franchise names are protected from ongoing comp and cost volatility, while allowing for stronger leverage and return on investment.

"Through earnings, we believe the best insulated are our heavily franchised names as well as those that grounded expectations intra-quarter," Barclays said in an analyst note.

Panera Bread is expected to post fiscal 2016 second quarter earnings next Tuesday after markets close. 

(Panera Bread is a held in Jim Cramer's charitable trust portfolio Action Alerts PLUS. See all of Cramer's holdings with a free trial)

Separately, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author. TheStreet Ratings has this to say about the recommendation:

We rate PANERA BREAD CO as a Buy with a ratings score of B. This is driven by a number of strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, good cash flow from operations, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, notable return on equity and solid stock price performance. We feel its strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: PNRA

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