NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Sonic Corp (SONC) are up 1.96% to $36.35 on heavy volume in afternoon trading Tuesday, a few hours ahead of the casual restaurant chain's fiscal second quarter earnings release, expected after the market closes today.

Wall Street analysts are expecting profits of 12 cents per share for the quarter, an improvement from the 7 cents it reported in the same quarter of last year.

Revenue is expected by analysts to come in at $123.36 million, up from the $109.74 million Sonic posted a year ago.

Shares of Sonic have gained about 75% over the last year.

About 1.57 million shares have exchanged hands as of 2:20 p.m. ET today, compared to its average trading volume of about 780,649 shares a day.

Oklahoma City-based Sonic operates and franchises a chain of drive-in restaurants serving food items, such as specialty drinks, ice cream desserts, made-to-order sandwiches and hamburgers, hot dogs, hand-battered onion rings, tater tots and wraps.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates SONIC CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of B. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate SONIC CORP (SONC) a BUY. 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, notable return on equity, solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth and compelling growth in net income. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company is trading at a premium valuation based on our review of its current price compared to such things as earnings and book value."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 7.3%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 10.4%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.
• Powered by its strong earnings growth of 28.57% and other important driving factors, this stock has surged by 56.20% over the past year, outperforming the rise in the S&P 500 Index during the same period. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, SONC should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.
• SONIC CORP has improved earnings per share by 28.6% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, SONIC CORP increased its bottom line by earning $0.85 versus $0.64 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($1.07 versus $0.85).
• The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the S&P 500 and greatly outperformed compared to the Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure industry average. The net income increased by 22.9% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $8.21 million to $10.09 million.
• The company's current return on equity greatly increased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of significant strength within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure industry and the overall market, SONIC CORP's return on equity significantly exceeds that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: SONC Ratings Report