SG

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. CMG is scheduled to report third-quarter 2026 results on Oct. 28. CMG's earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the trailing three out of four quarters and reported in line once, the average surprise being 2.7%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) is pegged at 29 cents, flat year over year. For revenues, the consensus mark is pegged at $3.29 billion. The metric suggests a rise of 9.5% from the year-ago quarter's figure. Let us take a look at how things might have shaped up in the quarter to be reported. Chipotle's third-quarter 2026 revenues are likely to have benefited from continued menu innovation, improved restaurant execution and efforts to strengthen customer engagement. The company's Recipe for Growth strategy focuses on driving transaction growth through better food quality, generous portions, faster service and enhanced hospitality. The return of popular limited-time offerings and investments in high-efficiency kitchen equipment are expected to have supported customer traffic and repeat visits. However, softer restaurant industry trends and cautious consumer spending might have limited the extent of sales growth. Menu innovation is likely to have remained an important revenue driver for Chipotle in the third quarter. The successful return of Chipotle Honey Chicken, along with sustained demand for Cilantro Lime Sauce, has helped attract new customers and encouraged existing guests to visit more frequently. The company has also been emphasizing high-protein offerings to capitalize on consumer interest in protein-rich meals. Chipotle's refreshed marketing strategy, including culturally relevant promotions and the Matchday BOGO campaign, has helped strengthen brand engagement. Further, the company's focus on communicating the quality of its ingredients and the value of the offerings might have supported customer acquisition and spending. Chipotle's digital initiatives and restaurant expansion are also likely to have contributed to third-quarter sales. The revamped Rewards program, personalized offers and Summer of Extras campaign are expected to have encouraged repeat purchases and improved customer frequency. Efforts to simplify loyalty enrollment and enhance digital ordering might have further strengthened engagement. Meanwhile, the rollout of its high-efficiency equipment package ("HEEP") has been improving kitchen productivity, order fulfillment and service speed, potentially allowing restaurants to serve more customers during peak periods. New restaurant openings, including locations equipped with Chipotlanes, are likely to have supported overall revenue growth. In addition, gradual menu price increases are expected to have provided a further lift to sales. Our model predicts Food and Beverage as well as Delivery Service revenues to increase 8.5% and 10.5% year over year. Chipotle's third-quarter 2026 bottom line is likely to have received support from higher menu prices, improved restaurant throughput and operating efficiencies associated with HEEP. Management expects pricing to contribute in the mid-2% range during the quarter, helping offset some inflationary pressure. However, elevated beef, freight and other ingredient costs, along with wage inflation, might have weighed on restaurant-level margins. Higher marketing investments, insurance, maintenance and utility expenses are also likely to have pressured profitability. Management anticipated restaurant-level operating costs to remain elevated, with other operating costs expected in the mid-15% range. Additionally, tougher year-over-year comparisons, consumer caution and the potential sales impact of the cyclospora-related industry concerns might have constrained operating leverage. Thus, although pricing and operational improvements might have provided some relief, persistent cost pressures are likely to have remained a challenge for margins. Our model predicts third-quarter restaurant-level margins to decline 80 basis points year over year to 25%. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. Quote Our proven model does not predict an earnings beat for Chipotle this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat, which is not the case here. Earnings ESP for CMG: Chipotle has an Earnings ESP of -0.39%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they're reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. Chipotle's Zacks Rank: The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3. Here are some stocks from the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector, which, according to our model, have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this reporting cycle. Starbucks Corporation SBUX currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.24% and a Zacks Rank of 2. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. In the to-be-reported quarter, SBUX's earnings are expected to increase 40.4% year over year. SBUX's earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters and missed twice, with the average surprise being 8.4%. Sweetgreen, Inc. SG has an Earnings ESP of +4.26% and a Zacks Rank of 2 at present. In the to-be-reported quarter, Sweetgreen's earnings are expected to register a 3.7% year-over-year decline. SG's earnings lagged estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average miss being 43%. Brinker International, Inc. EAT currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.59% and a Zacks Rank of 3. In the to-be-reported quarter, Brinker earnings are expected to register a 29% year-over-year increase. EAT's earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 6.2%. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Brinker International, Inc. (EAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Sweetgreen, Inc. (SG) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated CAKE is scheduled to report third-quarter 2026 results on Oct. 27. CAKE's earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 10.1%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) is pegged at 92 cents, indicating a rise of 35.3% from 68 cents reported in the year-ago quarter. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated price-eps-surprise | The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated Quote For revenues, the consensus mark is pegged at $998.5 million. The metric suggests a rise of 10.1% from the year-ago quarter's figure. Let us take a look at how things might have shaped up in the quarter to be reported. Cheesecake Factory is likely to have benefited from sustained sales momentum and continued positive guest traffic trends in the third quarter of 2026. The company entered the quarter with strong demand at its flagship Cheesecake Factory restaurants, supported by disciplined operational execution and effective customer engagement initiatives. Management indicated that the stronger comparable sales trends witnessed toward the end of the second quarter were expected to continue into the third quarter. Emphasis on menu innovation, the Cheesecake Rewards program and increasing digital engagement are likely to have aided the company's performance in the third quarter. The successful launch of its mobile app, alongside personalized promotions and targeted social media campaigns, is expected to have supported customer acquisition, engagement and visit frequency. Meanwhile, the introduction of new Bites, Bowls and other menu offerings, with an updated menu rolling out through September, is likely to have strengthened the brand's value proposition and supported traffic growth. Management expected menu pricing to remain slightly below 3% during the quarter. The company's diversified restaurant portfolio is also expected to have supported performance. Flower Child is likely to have maintained strong momentum, benefiting from demand for its health-focused menu, accessible pricing and differentiated dining experience. Continued traffic growth and consistent off-premise demand are expected to have supported the concept's sales performance. Meanwhile, restaurant expansion across its portfolio is likely to have contributed incremental revenues. The company planned six restaurant openings during the third quarter, supporting its broader expansion strategy. Operational efficiencies and improving restaurant productivity are expected to have supported profitability. Stronger sales volumes, disciplined labor management and improved food efficiency are likely to have provided operating leverage. CAKE expects third-quarter 2026 revenues between $980 million and $990 million, with an adjusted net income margin of approximately 4.3% at the midpoint of the revenue range. However, higher marketing investments, commodity inflation and wage pressures are expected to have partly offset these benefits. Management anticipated low-single-digit commodity inflation and low-to-mid-single-digit labor inflation during the third quarter. Our model predicts total costs and expenses in the third quarter to rise 7.3% year over year to $933.4 million. Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Cheesecake Factory this time. A stock needs to have a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) to beat earnings. However, that's not the case here. Earnings ESP for CAKE: Cheesecake Factory currently has an Earnings ESP of -0.34%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they're reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. Cheesecake Factory's Zacks Rank: The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2. Here are some stocks from the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector, which, according to our model, have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this reporting cycle. Starbucks Corporation SBUX currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.24% and a Zacks Rank of 2. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. In the to-be-reported quarter, SBUX's earnings are expected to increase 40.4% year over year. SBUX's earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters and missed twice, with the average surprise being 8.4%. Sweetgreen, Inc. SG has an Earnings ESP of +4.26% and a Zacks Rank of 2 at present. In the to-be-reported quarter, Sweetgreen's earnings are expected to register a 3.7% year-over-year decline. SG's earnings missed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average miss being 43%. Brinker International, Inc. EAT currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.59% and a Zacks Rank of 3. In the to-be-reported quarter, Brinker earnings are expected to register a 29% year-over-year increase. EAT's earnings surpassed estimates in all of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 6.2%. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (CAKE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Brinker International, Inc. (EAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Sweetgreen, Inc. (SG) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Sweetgreen has logged a solid share price run recently, which naturally puts the spotlight on whether the current market value still lines up with what its earnings can support. With the stock now under closer scrutiny, the key issue is how that recent performance squares with the profit profile behind the brand. - The share price is up about 39.0% year to date, which raises the question of whether Sweetgreen's earnings are strong enough to underpin that kind of gain. - The business model relies on scaling a relatively low-ticket restaurant concept, which can make operating leverage and the path to consistent profitability especially important for how investors think about its earnings power. - Your read on Sweetgreen is one view; the desks covering it have another. See what analysts think Sweetgreen's shares could be worth. The stock's next move may depend on whether Sweetgreen's current earnings justify the price that investors are paying today. If you are weighing whether Sweetgreen's recent 39.0% year to date gain still lines up with its earnings, it can help to compare that question across 29 high quality undervalued stocks. The P/E ratio is a useful lens for Sweetgreen because the debate around the stock largely comes down to what investors are willing to pay for each dollar of earnings as the restaurant chain matures. Sweetgreen trades on a P/E of about 83.9x, compared with roughly 19.5x for the broader hospitality group and around 21.9x for its peer set. That is a substantial premium to what the market currently applies to similar food service businesses. A fair value model that adjusts the P/E for Sweetgreen's own risk profile, margins and scale flags the current multiple as overvalued. The gap is so wide that the framework is effectively saying the stock screens as very expensive on earnings, rather than pointing to a precise "right" P/E. For anyone considering Sweetgreen at today's price, the key issue is whether the potential earnings path justifies paying this kind of upfront premium or whether expectations have moved ahead of what the current profit base can support. Explore the numbers behind Sweetgreen's P/E valuation. Simply Wall St Narratives pick up where Sweetgreen's valuation puzzle leaves off. They spell out which expectations on growth, profitability and earnings would need to hold for the stock to be worth meaningfully more or less than it is today on the market. Each one lays out the assumptions behind its fair value so you can track those inputs against Sweetgreen's reported numbers over time on the Community page. One of the top community narratives on Sweetgreen: 22% overvalued "Ongoing sales declines, aggressive expansion, rising costs, and uneven store performance threaten profitability and brand strength as Sweetgreen faces shifting consumer preferences and operational challenges..." Discover why this Narrative puts Sweetgreen at 22% overvalued. Everything so far has focused on what Sweetgreen looks like right now. Yet professional analysts have mapped out where they expect the business to be a few years from here. Explore where analysts expect Sweetgreen to be in a few years. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include SG. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]

The end of an earnings season can be a great time to discover new stocks and assess how companies are handling the current business environment. Let’s take a look at how Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) and the rest of the modern fast food stocks fared in Q2. Modern fast food is a relatively newer category representing a middle ground between traditional fast food and sit-down restaurants. These establishments feature an expanded menu selection priced above traditional fast food options, often incorporating fresher and cleaner ingredients to serve customers prioritizing quality. These eateries are capitalizing on the perception that your drive-through burger and fries joint is detrimental to your health because of inferior ingredients. The 6 modern fast food stocks we track reported a mixed Q2. As a group, revenues were in line with analysts’ consensus estimates. In light of this news, share prices of the companies have held steady as they are up 1.2% on average since the latest earnings results. Founded in 2007 by three Georgetown University alum, Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) is a casual quick service chain known for its healthy salads and bowls. Sweetgreen reported revenues of $192.7 million, up 3.8% year on year. This print fell short of analysts’ expectations by 0.6%. Overall, it was a disappointing quarter for the company with full-year EBITDA guidance missing analysts’ expectations and a significant miss of analysts’ EBITDA estimates. Sweetgreen delivered the slowest revenue growth in the group. Interestingly, the stock is up 15.1% since reporting and currently trades at $6.76. Read our full report on Sweetgreen here, it’s free. Started as a hot dog cart in New York City's Madison Square Park, Shake Shack (NYSE:SHAK) is a fast-food restaurant known for its burgers and milkshakes. Shake Shack reported revenues of $417.6 million, up 17.2% year on year, in line with analysts’ expectations. The business had a very strong quarter with a beat of analysts’ EPS and EBITDA estimates. The market seems content with the results as the stock is up 4.2% since reporting. It currently trades at $69.00. Is now the time to buy Shake Shack? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free. The passion project of two chicken wing aficionados in Texas, Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) is a popular fast-food chain known for its flavorful and crispy chicken wings offered in a variety of sauces and seasonings. Wingstop reported revenues of $185.6 million, up 6.4% year on year, falling short of analysts’ expectations by 2.4%. It was a slower quarter as it posted a miss of analysts’ same-store sales and EBITDA estimates. Wingstop delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates among its peers. As expected, the stock is down 17.7% since the results and currently trades at $110.97. Read our full analysis of Wingstop’s results here. Begun as a Chicago hot dog stand in 1963, Portillo’s (NASDAQ:PTLO) is a casual restaurant chain that serves Chicago-style hot dogs and beef sandwiches as well as fries and shakes. Portillo's reported revenues of $199 million, up 5.6% year on year. This print met analysts’ expectations. Overall, it was a very strong quarter as it also produced a beat of analysts’ EPS and EBITDA estimates. The stock is down 5.6% since reporting and currently trades at $4.41. Read our full, actionable report on Portillo's here, it’s free. Starting from a single Washington, D.C. location, CAVA (NYSE:CAVA) operates a fast-casual restaurant chain offering customizable Mediterranean-inspired dishes. CAVA reported revenues of $368.4 million, up 31.3% year on year. This number topped analysts’ expectations by 2.4%. It was a strong quarter as it also put up a solid beat of analysts’ same-store sales and EBITDA estimates. CAVA achieved the biggest analyst estimate beat and fastest revenue growth of the whole group. The stock is up 1.3% since reporting and currently trades at $61.60. Read our full, actionable report on CAVA here, it’s free. Over the past year, investors have been forced to repeatedly answer the same question: what is the market’s biggest risk? The answer has changed several times, and each shift has reshaped market leadership. Late in 2025 and early 2026, artificial intelligence became the market’s primary uncertainty. Investors questioned whether AI would erode software pricing power and weaken competitive moats as AI made it easier to replicate once-differentiated products. By the spring, technology took a back seat to geopolitics. The U.S. conflict with Iran briefly became the market’s dominant narrative, raising concerns about oil prices, inflation, and global growth. But as energy markets remained orderly and fears of a prolonged supply disruption faded, investors quickly turned their focus back to fundamentals. Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our Top 5 Growth Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate.

Sweetgreen's second quarter was marked by underperformance against Wall Street’s expectations, with both revenue and non-GAAP earnings coming in below consensus. The market reacted negatively, reflecting investor concern over the effectiveness of recent strategic initiatives and ongoing headwinds in traffic and same-store sales. Management acknowledged these challenges, with CEO Jonathan Neman stating, “Our results are not where they need to be,” citing operational hurdles and the impact of industry-wide food safety headlines on guest behavior. Sequential improvements were noted, but the company remains in a turnaround phase. Is now the time to buy SG? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $192.7 million vs analyst estimates of $193.9 million (3.8% year-on-year growth, 0.6% miss) Adjusted EPS: -$0.15 vs analyst expectations of -$0.12 (24.7% miss) Adjusted EBITDA: -$175,000 vs analyst estimates of $5.67 million (-0.1% margin, significant miss) EBITDA guidance for the full year is -$25 million at the midpoint, below analyst estimates of $2.33 million Operating Margin: -14.2%, in line with the same quarter last year Locations: 287 at quarter end, up from 260 in the same quarter last year Same-Store Sales fell 6.2% year on year (-7.6% in the same quarter last year) Market Capitalization: $692.8 million While we enjoy listening to the management’s commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls is the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Aisling Grueninger (Bank of America): Asked whether the lower price point of wraps was driving the intended traffic and repeat behavior, or if it was creating a check headwind. CEO Jonathan Neman said wraps are boosting frequency and attracting Gen Z consumers, and that the next step is to leverage wraps for new customer acquisition. Margaret-May Binshtok (Wolfe Research): Asked how the Create Your Own pricing test and wraps together could improve value perception. Neman replied the new pricing test is being rolled out gradually, with early customer feedback positive, and a full rollout possible by year-end. Sharon Zackfia (William Blair): Questioned what underlying full-price transaction growth looked like, separate from promotional activity. CFO Jamie McConnell said promotions have been reduced and are now targeted at lapsed guests, with positive transaction momentum seen before the cyclospora event. Brian Mullan (Piper Sandler): Asked about plans for store growth with the new Chief Development Officer. Neman said new openings will be conservative, prioritizing high-return sites, while refining prototype and market selection for future acceleration. Rahul Krotthapalli (JPMorgan): Asked about strategies to attract new customers and broaden brand appeal. Neman detailed upcoming menu diversification, a shift in marketing mix toward broader awareness, and a refreshed brand and marketing team to drive top-of-funnel engagement. Looking forward, the StockStory team will be monitoring (1) signs of transaction and same-store sales stabilization as operational improvements scale, (2) the effectiveness of new menu launches and value-focused pricing in driving guest acquisition, and (3) the company’s ability to manage labor and ingredient costs in light of ongoing margin pressure. Progress on digital engagement and loyalty program performance will also be key indicators for Sweetgreen’s turnaround. Sweetgreen currently trades at $5.81, down from $5.87 just before the earnings. At this price, is it a buy or sell? See for yourself in our full research report (it’s free for active Edge members). ONE MORE THING: Top 5 Growth Stocks. The biggest stock winners almost always had one thing in common before they ran. Revenue growing like crazy. Meta. CrowdStrike. Broadcom. Our AI flagged all three. They returned 315%, 314%, and 455%, respectively. Find out which 5 stocks it’s flagging this month — FREE. Get Our Top 5 Growth Stocks for Free HERE. Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-small-cap company Exlservice (+271% between June 2020 and June 2025). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thu, Aug. 6, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. ET VP of Finance and Investor Relations - Anthony Wiginton Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer - Jonathan Neman Chief Financial Officer - Jamie McConnell Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Sweetgreen, Inc. Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Anthony Wiginton, VP of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Anthony Wiginton: Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Speaking on today's call will be Jonathan Neman, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; as well as Jamie McConnell, Chief Financial Officer. Both will be available for questions during the Q&A session following the prepared remarks. Today's call is being webcast live and recorded for replay. The earnings release is available on the Investor Relations section of Sweetgreen's website at investor.sweetgreen.com. I would like to remind everyone that the information under the heading Forward-Looking Statements included in our earnings release also applies to our comments made during the call. These forward-looking statements are based on information as of today, and we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements. We also direct you to our earnings release for additional information regarding our use of non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures mentioned on the call with their corresponding GAAP measures. Our earnings release can be found on our investor website. And now I will turn the call over to Jonathan to kick things off. Jonathan Neman: Thank you, Anthony, and good afternoon, everyone. I want to start by thanking our teams for staying focused, resilient and disciplined through what continues to be a challenging operating environment. Before discussing our results, I want to take a moment to address 2 separate public health matters affecting the fresh produce and restaurant industries. The safety of our guests and team members is always our highest priority. The cyclospora outbreak has been attributed to iceberg lettuce, which we do not use anywhere on our menu. We continue to monitor the situation closely and have no indication from our suppliers or public health authorities that Sweetgreen is connected to that outbreak. As Jamie will discuss shortly, the impact of this outbreak, including the range of recovery assumptions, is reflected in our updated outlook. In a separate and unrelated matter, a voluntary recall involving jalapeños was issued yesterday. As an added precaution, we proactively removed and discarded all jalapeños from the supplier in the affected areas. Jalapeños are used in only 2 of our 15 dressings and nowhere else on our menu, representing a very small portion of our sales mix. Because the communication was issued only yesterday, it is too early to reasonably estimate any potential impact, and therefore, it is not reflected in our outlook. We will continue to uphold our high standards through rigorous food safety systems, operating procedures and team training. Outside of the recent events, our results are not where they need to be. However, we know exactly where our opportunities are: ensuring every restaurant is consistently rush-ready during peak periods, increasing top-of-funnel awareness to bring more guests into the brand and moving with greater speed to capture the margin opportunities we see across the business. That said, we did see progress during the quarter with comparable transaction trends improving sequentially each month, including flat transaction comps in June. This progress gives us confidence that our actions are beginning to have an impact and that we will get back to positive, sustainable transaction growth. Now turning to our results for the second quarter. Revenue was $192.7 million. Comparable restaurant sales declined by 6.2%. Restaurant-level profit margin was 13.1% and adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $0.2 million. We ended the quarter with 287 restaurants. We've made deliberate choices about what to prioritize now and what to sequence later so we can strengthen the core, grow transactions, rebuild AUVs and improve restaurant-level cash flow. We're executing that plan with urgency and discipline across our 5 strategic priorities, which include operational excellence, food quality and menu innovation, brand relevance, personalized experiences and disciplined, profitable investment. Let me walk you through how this is showing up across the business. Starting with operational excellence, which begins with consistently delivering a great guest experience in every restaurant during every visit. Throughput is our top priority, and we think about it as a flywheel. It starts with strong, stable leadership, which drives staffing, deployment and training decisions that put the right people in the right place at the right time, all in service of being rush-ready before peak. We've recently seen this flywheel work, and we're doubling down on it. Over the past year, we've elevated our field leadership, improving headcount stability and driving greater accountability and execution. New York and Seattle show what this looks like in practice. New regional general managers raised the bar on throughput and hospitality, and both markets returned to positive transaction comps in the second quarter. With strong leaders, clear priorities and consistent routines, the business responds. Our restaurant scorecard and Rush Ready before peak discipline give teams and field leaders real-time visibility into what matters: sales, throughput, guest satisfaction, food quality and people. And in June, we introduced a more structured process around throughput at our highest volume restaurants with weekly accountability built in and saw immediate improvement in both throughput and transactions. At these restaurants, frontline peak entrees prepared per hour rose from the low 50s in May to the low 60s in June. And on our busiest days, our best restaurants surpassed 250 entrees an hour, which shows the opportunity ahead as we scale this process. Additionally, we redesigned our training programs for head coaches, kitchen leads and core team members with a sharper focus on hospitality, throughput and food quality. Rollout begins now, and this is expected to further strengthen our teams, reduce turnover and deepen our bench of leaders. Together, we believe we have the leadership and tools that get us back to sustainable transaction growth and a stronger, more profitable business. Moving to food quality and menu innovation. Real food made from scratch with high-quality ingredients remains at the center of everything we do. It drives our mission of building healthier communities by connecting people to real food that tastes great and makes you feel great. Starting with wraps. Wraps drove a couple of hundred basis points of comparable sales uplift, including about 500 basis points improvement in transactions, and demonstrated how we can bring our food philosophy to new formats and occasions. While overall comps didn't perform quite as strongly as our market test indicated, wraps have maintained approximately 20% incidence, exceeding our expectations. We intentionally introduced wraps at a more accessible entry price, giving guests a compelling value option while staying true to the quality and ingredients that define Sweetgreen. More importantly, wraps drove an increase in frequency with more than half of guests who ordered a wrap returning within 30 days, outperforming even our Harvest Bowl, which has historically been our most popular and highest retention menu item. Beyond wraps, we are building a more consistent menu calendar with a regular cadence of seasonal offerings, collaborations and partnerships designed to give customers new reasons to visit and keep Sweetgreen top of mind all year long. We recently announced our collaboration with Fishwife, bringing together 2 culturally relevant brands that share an appreciation for high-quality ingredients, bold flavors and modern food culture. This fall, we'll welcome back our seasonal Brussels sprouts, along with the collaboration featuring a highly regarded chef that we're excited to unveil in the coming months. At the same time, we are just as focused on strengthening our core menu. One recent example is our enhanced Hot Honey Chicken Plate featuring golden quinoa and Napa cabbage slaw, which has delivered higher reorder rates since its relaunch. We believe plates represent a meaningful opportunity to broaden our dinner business, and we have an exciting pipeline of menu innovation over the coming quarters and into 2027. Strengthening the core also means ensuring guests get the quality, portions and experience they expect at a compelling price. We have not taken a price increase in over a year. And since 2019, our price increases have trailed broader restaurant industry inflation by more than 13 percentage points and grocery inflation by more than 7 percentage points. Wraps have further expanded our range of accessible entry points without compromising the quality or generous portions customers expect from Sweetgreen. This has translated into improving trends in our lower income and Gen Z customer cohorts. Finally, we recently launched a redesigned Create Your Own test that includes a protein in the base price, along with greater transparency around premium add-ons. The experience is easier to navigate and makes it simpler for customers to understand the value that Sweetgreen delivers. We expect to have more to share on the test results next quarter. Together, this work is focused on making Sweetgreen more craveable, accessible and relevant across more occasions, and that leads directly to our next priority, brand relevance. Sweetgreen has always been shaped by meaningful relationships with farmers, chefs and communities. Our opportunity is not to reinvent the brand, but to make what is already distinctive about Sweetgreen more visible to more people. Our latest brand health research shows that Sweetgreen resonates strongly with guests who are familiar with us. We continue to stand out for high-quality ingredients, food that makes you feel good, trust and cultural relevance. We are also seeing frequency and reactivation growth among existing and lapsed guests. This shows up the most in our digital business, specifically our pickup channel, where comps were positive and accelerated each month of the quarter. However, we are not yet reaching enough potential guests. Building broader awareness and consideration is an important opportunity to introduce more people to Sweetgreen, drive trial and support transaction-led growth. We are evolving our media mix, placing greater emphasis on upper-and middle-funnel channels and more consistent ongoing storytelling. Going forward, we also see an opportunity to build stronger local marketing capabilities around our restaurants and pursue culturally relevant partnerships that give more people new ways to discover and engage with Sweetgreen. The launch of wraps demonstrated the potential of this approach. Wraps generated our highest social engagement to date, supported by over 1,000 micro influencers who brought the launch into local communities and relevant cultural conversations at scale. We now have an opportunity to build on that engagement, broaden awareness and convert more of that interest into trial. Our summer menu turned Sweetgreen's distinctive ingredients into storytelling. And this year, that included Alice Waters' Peach & Goat Cheese Salad developed with Alice herself. She taught us that behind every extraordinary meal is an extraordinary farmer, introducing us to Frog Hollow Farm, whose peaches we've served every summer since. This is a model we intend to build upon. Distinctive food supported by authentic storytelling, a consistent content cadence, culturally relevant partnerships that break through the noise and local activation that connects attention back to our restaurants. Together, these efforts are designed to expand awareness and consideration, attract new guests and support durable transaction-led growth. Personalized experiences supported the building momentum we experienced in the second quarter in our own digital business. In April, SG Rewards reached its 1-year anniversary. During the first year, we learned a lot about how our guests engage with the program and what they value most. We put those learnings into action in June by making points easier to use and expanding the ways members can be rewarded. New redemption options include $3 off an entree and a wrap reward available at a lower point threshold than a full entree. We are encouraged by the early response with a meaningful percentage of active loyalty customers choosing these new redemption options. This reinforces that greater choice and more accessible rewards are resonating with our members. SG Rewards also gives us a deeper understanding of what our guests love and enables us to make each interaction more relevant from how they discover our menu to the offers and communications they receive. Over time, we believe greater personalization will help increase frequency, deepen loyalty and strengthen our relationships with guests. We recently launched an AI-enabled personalization engine into tests in our CRM channel to understand the lift that we can expect from personalization. Shifting to our final pillar, disciplined profitable investment. We believe Sweetgreen has significant room to grow, but we must earn the right to accelerate that growth. That starts with strengthening our existing restaurants by rebuilding AUVs, improving flow-through and driving greater discipline across labor and cost of sales. Our new Chief Development Officer, Ryan Slemons, is also refining our prototype design and construction costs, market selection and new unit economics. During the second quarter, we opened 4 new restaurants, including 2 Infinite Kitchens, and closed 2, resulting in 2 net new openings. In July, we entered Tennessee with the opening of our Nashville restaurant in The Gulch. It is a strong example of how we want to enter new markets with the right site, a locally relevant launch and meaningful community partnerships. We remain confident in Sweetgreen's long-term growth opportunity and are building the operating discipline and development capabilities required to capture it profitably. In closing, let me leave you with this. We are not satisfied with where we are today, but we have made the hard choices to center the organization on our core, and we are beginning to see encouraging signs that the work is taking hold. We know that when we consistently deliver what Sweetgreen does best, real craveable food made from scratch and served with genuine hospitality, the customer and the business responds. That's how we build a stronger, more resilient Sweetgreen and lay the foundation for profitable new restaurant growth and long-term value creation. We believe we have the right plan and clear priorities to return to transaction-led comps, get back to $3 million AUVs and expand margins over time. I want to thank our teams again for their focus, resilience and heart. With that, I will turn the call over to Jamie to take you through our financial results and outlook. Jamie McConnell: Thank you, Jonathan, and good afternoon, everyone. For the second quarter, total revenue was $192.7 million, an increase of approximately 4% year-over-year. Comparable restaurant sales declined 6.2%, driven by a 2% decline in transactions and a 4.2% decline in product mix. We had no year-over-year menu price increase. The product mix headwind primarily reflected targeted promotional activity to re-engage guests, wraps at a more accessible entry price and the comparison against higher side attachments following last year's Ripple Fries launch, which was discontinued in the third quarter of 2025. These headwinds were partially offset by continued strength in catering. While we are disappointed with our overall results, we saw meaningful sequential improvement throughout the quarter. Comparable transactions improved from down 11.2% in the first quarter to down approximately 3% in both April and May before reaching roughly flat in June, supported by the successful national launch of wraps and early progress against our operational priorities. This improvement provided encouraging evidence that our Sweet Growth transformation plan was beginning to take hold. Beginning in mid-July, heightened consumer concern related to the recent cyclospora headlines disrupted that momentum, and the impact to July comparable sales was about 600 basis points. We are taking targeted actions to reinforce consumer confidence and reengage guests. While the timing of a full recovery is difficult to predict, we are confident in our ability to rebuild momentum. Against this backdrop, our priorities remain unchanged. As Jon discussed, we are focused on strengthening restaurant execution and throughput, increasing brand awareness to attract new guests and testing our redesigned Create Your Own experience. These initiatives are central to restoring sustainable transaction growth and rebuilding restaurant level profitability over time. Turning to restaurant level profitability. Restaurant level profit was $25.2 million, representing a margin of 13.1% compared with 18.9% in the prior year. Food, beverage and packaging costs were 29.8% of revenue, an increase of approximately 210 basis points year-over-year. The increase primarily reflected higher ingredient usage, portion investments and targeted promotional activity. These were partially offset by supply chain savings. We have improved visibility into the drivers of ingredient usage and are taking actions across the entire flow of food, from ordering and receiving inventory through preparation and point-of-sale accuracy. We are enhancing our recommended ordering tool to better align sales forecasts with restaurant needs and strengthening our outlier management process to share learnings and reinforce best practices across our teams. These actions will improve consistency and simplify execution while maintaining our high-quality ingredients and culinary standards, and we expect to begin realizing some of these efficiencies in the second half of the year. We are now testing the enhanced recommending ordering tool in select restaurants, and the results will help us refine the tools before scaling it across the system. We continue to see approximately 150 basis points of cost of sales opportunity from reducing waste and improving ingredient usage while ensuring restaurants have the ingredients they need. Labor and related expenses were 29.2% of revenue, an increase of approximately 170 basis points year-over-year, primarily due to sales deleverage and wage inflation. Our recently completed labor study identified opportunities to align staffing more closely with demand. We are now preparing to test restaurant-specific scheduling and deployment models that shift labor toward peak periods and better reflect each restaurant sales volume and format. These tests will help us evaluate the impact on throughput, the guest experience and labor productivity before scaling the approach more broadly. We expect to have more to share on the results in the coming quarters. Other restaurant operating expenses were 18.5% of revenue, an increase of approximately 150 basis points year-over-year, primarily due to sales deleverage and, to a lesser extent, higher utility costs. G&A expense in the quarter was $29.7 million, a decrease of $4.8 million year-over-year. The improvement was primarily driven by lower stock-based compensation and reduced salaries and benefits. Underlying support center costs, excluding stock-based compensation and certain onetime expenses, was $24.2 million, a decrease of $2 million year-over-year. We are maintaining discipline in support center spending while continuing to invest in the capabilities that matter most to the transformation. Depreciation expense in the quarter was $18.8 million, or 9.7% of revenue, flat year-over-year as a percentage of revenue. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $200,000, compared with a profit of $6.4 million in the prior year. The decline was primarily attributable to lower restaurant level profit. We ended the quarter with $142.6 million in cash. During the quarter, we opened 2 net new restaurants and ended the quarter with 287 restaurants, of which 35 restaurants are powered by the Infinite Kitchen. Now turning to our fiscal 2026 outlook. We are updating our full year guidance to reflect the impact of the cyclospora outbreak and a range of potential recovery outcomes. While it is difficult to predict the expected recovery, our full year comparable sales guidance assumes a continued impact of 600 to 700 basis points to the third quarter, with the low end assuming a partial recovery in the fourth quarter and the high end assuming a return to the pre-disruption trend by the start of the fourth quarter. Based on these assumptions, we now expect full-year comparable restaurant sales to decline between 8% and 7%, restaurant-level profit margin to range from 10.5% to 11% and adjusted EBITDA to range from a loss of $27 million to $23 million. Within the guidance, the estimated impact of disruption is between 200 to 300 basis points of comparable sales, 100 to 150 basis points to restaurant level margin and $7 million to $10 million in EBITDA. We remain focused on what we can control by rebuilding sales momentum, executing our operational priorities and managing costs and capital with discipline. The progress we saw during the second quarter and into early July reinforces our confidence in the underlying direction of the business. We will continue to move with urgency as we position Sweetgreen for more consistent and profitable growth over time. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator to begin Q&A. Operator? Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Sara Senatore with Bank of America. Aisling Grueninger: This is Aisling on for Sara. My question is really on wraps. And it sounds like wraps are resonating with guests, but they appear to be contributing to some outsized mix pressure. Just how are you thinking about this trade-off? Are they driving the kind of incremental traffic and repeat behavior you wanted? Or is the lower price point creating more of a check headwind than you initially anticipated? Jonathan Neman: Yes. So overall, we're really pleased with wraps. We launched wraps, and we've seen almost a 20% incidence, and it's held steady. I think what's even more encouraging is the frequency of wraps. The wraps customers are seeing about a 5-point increase in frequency and wraps are seeing the highest return rate on anything else on the menu, even more so than the Harvest Bowl. So I think the last thing I'll say about that is it is helping us resonate with younger consumers as well. We saw a lot of growth with our Gen Z consumers. So overall, I'd say wraps are working. It's helping reposition Sweetgreen as a more affordable option, a more craveable option. And the real opportunity for us now is to leverage wraps around driving new customer acquisitions from a top-of-funnel perspective. So I think we'll see a long tail of wraps on continuing to compound. We do have a lot of new news coming with wraps, including next week, a new wrap that we are launching and more plans for continued innovation on wraps. So overall, I think we're pleased with them. Customers, most importantly, are loving them. The feedback is great. And a lot of the concerns and worries we had about wraps in terms of throughput, we were able to iron out. And so within 4 weeks of launch, we were able to return our speed of service, and we're even able to accelerate throughput on the other side of that. So overall, I'd say it was a win and the goal now is to continue to build on it and use them to acquire more customers. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Margaret-May Binshtok with Wolfe Research. Margaret-May Binshtok: I just wanted to ask on the Create Your Own pricing test. Where does it stand today? And I mean, given some of the positive momentum that you guys have seen from wraps and that lower price point, I guess, how are you thinking about how the 2 can kind of go together to improve value perception towards the back half of the year? Jonathan Neman: Margaret, thanks for the question. So we launched our pilot of our new CYO pricing test. It's been about a month or so. We started in our Indianapolis market, slowly scaled out into our DC DMV market and just this week have expanded it to Southern California and Orange County. So, so far, we're seeing customers are happy with it. I think it's a much simpler way to order CYO without the price shock. And so it's too early to say what we're going to see around frequency or transaction lift. But so far, we're pretty encouraged about what we're seeing in the customer feedback and the overall enhanced value perception. So we'll come back with more on that. Our goal is to continue to watch the test and as long as all goes well, complete the rollout by the end of the year. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Sharon Zackfia with William Blair. Sharon Zackfia: It was encouraging to hear about the flat transactions in June. Obviously, that came with some promotional activity. I'm curious kind of what your full price or nondiscounted transaction growth might have been like in the month of June. And I guess what I'm trying to get at is kind of that return to profitable growth that you alluded to, Jonathan. Jamie McConnell: Sharon, yes, so our discounts represented about 200 points of the mix. And so like you said, we are really happy with the momentum that we saw throughout the quarter, and that continued into Q3. And what we have done with promotions is we're seeing what's working and what is not. So that percentage of mix has gone down into June. And what we are doing is targeting those promotions around lapsed guests. So it used to be for all loyalty members, you were getting a craving of the month, but we were not seeing the incremental transactions. So we've since pivoted and are only focused on our lapsed guests. Jonathan Neman: Yes, just to build on it, we've definitely weaned off the promotional activity throughout the quarter and into July. And before cyclospora hit, we were seeing really nice momentum in let's call it, the first 10 days of July with positive comps and transactions. So -- and that was without the promo running. So a lot of momentum as we work through the quarter. Obviously, external events have changed things quite a bit, but we expect to continue to drive growth without much promotional activity and really shifting more of our focus to acquiring new customers and from a top-of-funnel perspective and using, as Jamie said, using loyalty and CRM and promos in a very, very targeted way. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Brian Mullan with Piper Sandler. Brian Mullan: Just a question on development. What's the current thinking for how you might want to approach store growth next year? Not looking for precise guidance, but just trying to get a sense with the new Chief Development Officer, would there be some sort of pause while he does a full assessment? Or would you think that you would continue to at least open some stores? Any elaboration on that would be great. Jonathan Neman: Sure. So we will continue to open stores at, I'd say, a pretty conservative pace, similar or slower to what we've done this year, really focused on the real estate profiles where we know Sweetgreen works and resonates. So really aiming for really kind of home run sites that build our brand and meet our return thresholds. And during this time, as we are building the core business back, spending a lot of time really perfecting the prototype, the cost of it, the overall experience. So we are ready with that as we look to accelerate once the business recovers. So call it a slowdown to speed up phase. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Rahul Kro with JPMorgan. Rahul Krotthapalli: Jonathan, how should we think about retelling the brand story to resonate with potential future customers and capture a broader audience and drive wider awareness? I mean, attracting new customers into the system is oftentimes a bigger challenge than increasing frequency. And this has been an opportunity for the brand for some time. Can you elaborate on the specific initiatives? How are you planning to accomplish this? Jonathan Neman: Yes, absolutely. So there's a few ways that we're doing this. First and foremost, it starts with the diversification of the menu. So first was wraps. We are now spending a lot of time on a plates relaunch for the end of the year. What we're seeing is consumers are really resonating with our more protein-forward hot dishes. Just as an example, the Hot Honey Chicken has continued to perform really well. We actually did a what we call a glow up of that dish. And with that, we saw a 30% improvement in the 30-day order rate of that reorder rate of it becoming kind of a stickier dish and have now taken that approach across a number of other items on the menu. So menu is the first thing. The second is shifting the media mix. So the media mix has been very focused on bottom, middle of the funnel, really engaging with our existing customers and our lapsed customers. And we saw that, that's worked. We actually saw our frequency increase for our existing customer base, and we saw our digital channels comp positive. So as -- now that we've really gotten that working, the focus is moving more of the marketing mix to top of the funnel and working on some bigger tentpole moments, experiences and also bringing back a lot of the local and community marketing that we know works in terms of driving customers. So those are the big things. We have a really robust calendar for the back half of the year with a number of big moments. The other 2 things that we're really working on is more on social and more on out-of-home. Lastly, we've rebuilt our entire brand and marketing team leadership over the past 6 months and have brought a lot of really awesome capable creative talent to help reinvigorate the brand, tell big stories and acquire new customers. So really excited for this back half of the year and already have a really robust marketing calendar for 2027. Operator: Your next question is from Brian Bittner with Oppenheimer & Co. Michael Tamas: This is Mike Tamas on for Brian. I just wanted to go back to the underlying business prior to any of the issues that are impacting the third quarter. I mean you started the quarter down 8% comps in April and thought you'd get back to, I think, the negative 4% range for the quarter. You briefly touched on it with wraps a little bit, but what do you think were the biggest drivers that caused that shortfall versus what your plan was? And where do you see the greatest opportunity to improve sales moving forward outside of the cyclospora and the jalapeño issues? Jamie McConnell: Yes. So you're absolutely right. We saw great momentum going into the end of the quarter and also into July, and we're expecting for Q3 to turn to positive transactions before the outbreak. What I can tell you is -- what we saw in our test market with wraps, we saw more incrementality in tests versus what we saw during the launch. But the good news is what we're seeing is it's really resonating with our current guests, but we have the opportunity, like Jon said, to really acquire those new customers, but that really was the gap on the comparable sales guide. Jonathan Neman: Yes. It's really -- the gap has a lot to do with the mix shift and the check drag from wraps with such a high incidence. The good news is we are seeing a lot of momentum in terms of attachment on wraps. The attachment rate on wraps is higher. And as I mentioned earlier, the frequency of wraps customers is higher. So I think over time, you'll continue to see more incrementality out of that platform. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Jon Tower with Citi. Jon Tower: Yes. I guess 2 questions in one maybe. On the idea that the wraps didn't test or didn't hit the market as well as test indicated, what does it tell you guys about your testing in general? I mean I thought much of that had been at least examined recently in the past year to ensure that it gets better. So what in the testing process maybe missed this? And then on top of that, I guess the second question is thinking about the back half of the year, everything that's going on with industry headlines, are you accounting for a much greater promotional activity in this third quarter to get back to the guidance range that you've offered in the quarter from a same-store sales and, importantly, a profitability standpoint? Jonathan Neman: I'll take the second part of your question first is we really worked hard to wean off the promotions and are looking to be very disciplined there. So we have not built in a lot of promo in order to do that. We will invest in promos where we see it being accretive, but really trying to manage that very carefully, both from a business perspective and from a brand perspective. As it relates to your question around wrap, I think the real reason is what you saw in the results is it's really resonating with our existing and lapsed users. So in the markets that we tested in, they had -- they were large markets. So we got a -- in some ways, it was a very good test, and we ran it for a long time, but there were markets like New York that had greater brand awareness. So in that market, for example, we did see more incrementality. We've shared and I shared in my prepared remarks that with wraps longer in that market, you've seen that market really start to perform and move not only to positive transaction, but positive comps. So again, it highlights the opportunity of bringing more guests top of funnel with wraps and overall for the brand. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Steve McManus with BNP Paribas. Stephen McManus: So another question on wrap. So the 5% transaction lift, you got about 2 points showing up in comps and total traffic was still down 2%. So how much of the gap is cannibalization versus lower check on wrap visits? And what's the net like comp contribution once you strip that out? Jamie McConnell: Yes. So I'd say it's all primarily related to the lower check. Stephen McManus: Got it. Okay. And anything you could share around like the margin profile and the labor intensity around wraps versus the average salad bowl? Jamie McConnell: Yes. So it's -- we price it margin neutral to the rest of our items on our menu. Operator: Your next question is from the line of Kelly Merrill with Morgan Stanley. Kelly Anne Merrill: I just wanted to go back to mix. So it went from a modest drag on comps in the first quarter to a much larger one in the second. And I know you noted promo shift towards wraps, lapping Ripple Fries, all those things is impacting ticket. And given that you just said you're trying to wean off of promotions in the third quarter, I just wanted to ask, how long do you expect this magnitude of mix drag to persist? And what's baked into the back half guidance? And do you see this as like a new normal, a new baseline for mix? Or when do you see that moderating? Jamie McConnell: Yes. So we already started like we talked about moderating it into June. So in the back half of the year, we expect it to be in the low single digits. And we have completely lapped our launch of the Ripple Fries, so that will no longer be a mix headwind. Jonathan Neman: Yes. And just as a reminder, we have no price running through the system. And, like I said in the remarks, we've taken pretty significantly less price in both the category and grocery since 2019. So really trying to grow the business from a transaction perspective. We do have a lot of work being done around attachments. And so you'll see a lot more there. And as we continue to innovate outside of wraps, we do see opportunities to lift the check. So we've been pretty conservative in the guide around mix, but we have a lot of work doing to kind of bridge that gap. Operator: There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect. Before you buy stock in Sweetgreen, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Sweetgreen wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. 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As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool recommends Sweetgreen. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Sweetgreen (SG) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Interested in Sweetgreen, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Second-quarter performance weakened: Revenue rose about 4% to $192.7 million, but comparable restaurant sales fell 6.2% and restaurant-level margin declined to 13.1% from 18.9% a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA swung to a $200,000 loss. Wraps improved customer frequency and contributed roughly 200 basis points of comparable-sales growth, but their lower price pressured product mix and average check. Operational improvements also helped comparable transactions reach approximately flat in June before a mid-July Cyclospora-related disruption. Sweetgreen cut its 2026 outlook to an 8%–7% comparable-sales decline, a 10.5%–11% restaurant-level profit margin and a $27 million–$23 million adjusted EBITDA loss, reflecting an expected 600–700 basis-point sales impact in the third quarter. MarketBeat Week in Review – 06/22 - 06/26 Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $192.7 million, up approximately 4% from a year earlier, while comparable restaurant sales declined 6.2%. The company said transaction trends improved sequentially during the quarter, reaching roughly flat comparable transactions in June, but momentum was disrupted in mid-July by consumer concerns surrounding a Cyclospora outbreak attributed to iceberg lettuce. Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Neman said Sweetgreen does not use iceberg lettuce and has received no indication from suppliers or public health authorities that it is connected to the outbreak. Still, the company incorporated the expected impact of the headlines and a range of recovery scenarios into its revised full-year outlook. → Sandisk Just Delivered a Blowout Quarter—Here's Why the Stock Is Falling Investors Are Buying Into Sweetgreen Again—Should They? Sweetgreen also said it proactively removed jalapenos from an affected supplier following a separate voluntary recall announced the day before the call. Jalapenos are used only in two of its 15 dressings and represent a small part of sales, Neman said. The company has not included any potential effect from that matter in its outlook because it was too early to estimate. Comparable sales were pressured by a 2% decline in transactions and a 4.2% decline in product mix. Sweetgreen did not take a year-over-year menu price increase. Chief Financial Officer Jamie McConnell said the mix headwind reflected targeted promotions aimed at reengaging customers, the lower entry price of its wraps, and a comparison with higher side-item attachment following the prior-year introduction of Ripple Fries, which were discontinued in the third quarter of 2025. → 4 Oil and Gas ETF Plays as Prices Stay Sky-High Why Consumers Are Abandoning Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Cava The company’s comparable transaction trend improved from an 11.2% decline in the first quarter to declines of about 3% in April and May, before reaching approximately flat in June. McConnell said wraps and early operational improvements supported that progress. Restaurant-level profit was $25.2 million, or 13.1% of revenue, compared with an 18.9% margin a year earlier. Food, beverage and packaging costs rose about 210 basis points as a percentage of revenue, primarily due to higher ingredient usage, investments in portions and promotions. Labor and related expenses increased about 170 basis points, largely from sales deleverage and wage inflation. → No Hangover: Revisiting Microsoft One Week After Earnings Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $200,000, compared with adjusted EBITDA of $6.4 million in the prior-year quarter. Sweetgreen ended the quarter with $142.6 million in cash and 287 restaurants, including 35 locations powered by its Infinite Kitchen technology. Management highlighted the national launch of wraps as a major element of its sales strategy. Neman said wraps maintained approximately 20% incidence, exceeding the company’s expectations, and generated about 200 basis points of comparable-sales uplift, including roughly 500 basis points of transaction improvement. More than half of guests who ordered a wrap returned within 30 days, according to the company. Neman said wrap customers showed about a five-point increase in frequency, and wraps achieved the strongest return rate among Sweetgreen menu items, exceeding that of the Harvest Bowl. However, the accessible price point created a check and product-mix headwind. McConnell said the gap between the transaction contribution of wraps and their reported comparable-sales contribution was “all primarily related to the lower check.” She added that wraps are priced with margins comparable to other menu items. The company expects product mix to remain a low-single-digit headwind in the second half of 2026 as it reduces promotional activity and laps the prior-year Ripple Fries comparison. Management said it has been targeting promotions more narrowly toward lapsed guests rather than broadly extending offers to all loyalty members. Neman said Sweetgreen is prioritizing restaurant throughput, with an emphasis on ensuring locations are “Rush Ready Before Peak” periods. At its highest-volume restaurants, frontline peak entrees prepared per hour increased from the low 50s in May to the low 60s in June after the company introduced more structured weekly throughput accountability. On its busiest days, its best restaurants exceeded 250 entrees per hour, he said. New regional general managers in New York and Seattle helped those markets return to positive transaction comparisons during the second quarter, according to Neman. The company is also redesigning training for head coaches, kitchen leads and team members, while testing restaurant-specific scheduling and deployment models intended to better align labor with peak demand. On the menu, Sweetgreen plans to continue wrap innovation, launch seasonal Brussels sprouts in the fall and introduce a collaboration with a chef later this year. Management also said it sees an opportunity to expand dinner occasions through protein-forward plates. Neman cited the relaunched Hot Honey Chicken Plate, which he said produced a 30% improvement in its 30-day reorder rate. Sweetgreen is testing a redesigned Create Your Own ordering and pricing experience that includes a protein in the base price and offers greater transparency around premium add-ons. The test began in Indianapolis, expanded to the Washington, D.C., market, and recently reached Southern California and Orange County. Neman said customer feedback has been encouraging, though it remains too early to assess transaction or frequency effects. Sweetgreen lowered its full-year outlook to reflect the Cyclospora-related disruption. The company now expects: Comparable restaurant sales to decline between 8% and 7% for full-year 2026. Restaurant-level profit margin of 10.5% to 11%. Adjusted EBITDA loss of $27 million to $23 million. The outlook assumes a 600- to 700-basis-point comparable-sales impact in the third quarter from the disruption. The low end assumes a partial recovery in the fourth quarter, while the high end assumes a return to the pre-disruption trend at the start of the fourth quarter. Sweetgreen estimated that the disruption will reduce full-year comparable sales by 200 to 300 basis points, restaurant-level margin by 100 to 150 basis points, and adjusted EBITDA by $7 million to $10 million. Looking ahead, Neman said Sweetgreen intends to maintain a conservative restaurant development pace, similar to or slower than its pace this year, while refining restaurant prototypes, construction costs, market selection and unit economics. The company opened four restaurants and closed two during the second quarter, and it entered Tennessee in July with an opening in Nashville’s Gulch neighborhood. Sweetgreen, Inc is a fast-casual restaurant chain specializing in salads, grain bowls and warm bowls that emphasize fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Since its founding in 2007 by Jonathan Neman, Nicolas Jammet and Nathaniel Ru, Sweetgreen has focused on sustainable agriculture, working with regional farmers across the United States to provide seasonal produce and promote environmentally responsible sourcing practices. The company's menu features a variety of plant-forward options, including custom-build salads, chef-curated bowls and limited-time offerings that reflect changing harvests. Sweetgreen operates a technology-driven service model that combines in-store experiences with digital ordering through its mobile app and website. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Sweetgreen Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Interested in Shake Shack, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Strong sales growth continued: Second-quarter revenue rose 17.2% to $417.6 million, while same-Shack sales increased 3.5%, supported by positive traffic, pricing and mix. Digital sales reached nearly 41% of sales, with comparable app sales up nearly 30%. Profitability faced cost pressure: Restaurant-level margin fell 90 basis points to 23% as record beef prices, promotions, delivery commissions and other operating costs increased. Shake Shack maintained its full-year outlook but expects adjusted EBITDA and net income at the low end of guidance. Expansion remains a key growth driver: The company opened 16 company-operated locations in the quarter and reaffirmed plans for 60–65 openings in 2026, alongside 40–45 licensed openings. Management also expects a higher pace of company-operated openings in 2027. Investors Are Buying Into Sweetgreen Again—Should They? Shake Shack (NYSE:SHAK) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue growth of 17.2% as new restaurant openings, positive comparable sales and licensing gains offset pressure from elevated beef, distribution and operating costs. Total revenue rose to $417.6 million, while company-operated Shack sales increased 17.5% to $403.4 million. Same-Shack sales grew 3.5%, consisting of 2% traffic growth and 1.5% price and mix. The company estimated that World Cup-related activity contributed roughly 90 basis points to comparable sales during the quarter. → Sandisk Just Delivered a Blowout Quarter—Here's Why the Stock Is Falling MarketBeat Week in Review – 05/11 - 05/15 CEO Rob Lynch said the company delivered its fourth consecutive quarter of positive traffic growth and its 22nd straight quarter of positive comparable sales growth. He said Shake Shack’s approach remains focused on culinary innovation, targeted marketing and digital engagement rather than broad discounting. Digital sales represented nearly 41% of sales in the second quarter. Comparable app sales increased nearly 30% year over year, according to Lynch, while the app accounted for just over 10% of total channel mix, CFO Michelle Hook said. Management said app customers visit more frequently and spend more annually, and characterized the channel as its fastest-growing and most incremental source of traffic. → 4 Oil and Gas ETF Plays as Prices Stay Sky-High Shake Shack Stock Gets Shaken After Earnings Miss The company has used targeted offers across its app and delivery channels to drive customer acquisition and repeat visits. Lynch said incentives are concentrated in digital channels, where Shake Shack sees less cannibalization than with broader promotions. The company plans to expand lifecycle marketing in the second half through behavior-based communications, targeted offers and automated customer journeys. Shake Shack remains committed to launching its loyalty platform in 2026, though Lynch said it is not expected to be a meaningful revenue contributor this year because the company will initially test and refine the program. Management said it intends for loyalty to extend its “enlightened hospitality” strategy rather than operate solely as a points-based discount program. → No Hangover: Revisiting Microsoft One Week After Earnings On the menu, the barbecue platform featuring the Baby Back Rib Sandwich met expectations, Lynch said. The company has also made the Big Shack a core menu item after strong customer demand, though it has repriced the burger more consistently with its double-burger platform. Lynch said the prior $9.99 price point led to some trade-down from double burgers and created revenue and margin dilution. Shake Shack introduced a West Coast-inspired menu platform in July, returned the Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Shake and is testing additional chicken and smoked brisket offerings. Management said limited-time offerings can serve different objectives, including traffic generation, trial or higher average checks. Restaurant-level profit totaled $92.7 million, or 23% of Shack sales, down 90 basis points from the prior-year period. Food and paper costs rose 60 basis points to 28.8% of Shack sales, largely reflecting record-high beef prices, promotional activity and a mix shift toward higher-cost menu items. Blended food and paper inflation was in the low single digits, while beef costs rose by the mid-teens, Hook said. Labor and related expenses improved 60 basis points to 25.1% of Shack sales, aided by labor-management initiatives and operating efficiencies. Other operating expenses increased 80 basis points to 15.6% of Shack sales, driven primarily by delivery commissions, professional-service fees and travel and training associated with the higher pace of openings. Management expects beef inflation to remain elevated in the second half, though Hook said it should be less pronounced than in the first half. The company also expects continued low-single-digit labor inflation and ongoing pressure from food and operating expenses. Adjusted EBITDA rose 3.9% year over year to $61.2 million, or 14.7% of revenue. Net income attributable to Shake Shack was $15.7 million, down 8.6% from the prior-year quarter. The company ended the quarter with $308 million in cash and cash equivalents, $250 million of convertible notes outstanding and full availability under its revolving credit facility. Shake Shack opened 16 company-operated locations during the quarter, bringing year-to-date openings to 33. The company reiterated its plan to open 60 to 65 company-operated Shacks in 2026. The second-quarter openings were all in existing markets, where management said it continues to see significant whitespace. Hook said recent new classes of Shacks have generated cash-on-cash returns above 30%. Lynch said the company intends to maintain its development pace and anticipates an even higher number of openings in 2027 as the store base expands. The licensed business added eight net new Shacks during the quarter. Licensing sales rose 7.6% to $222.4 million and licensing revenue increased 7.1% to $14.2 million. Performance was strong in U.S. airports, Canada, the United Kingdom and parts of China, partially offsetting continued weakness in the United Arab Emirates amid conflict in the Middle East. Shake Shack continues to expect 40 to 45 licensed openings this year. Management also said it is evaluating additional restaurant formats, including smaller locations with less seating and potentially lower build costs. Lynch said drive-thru locations can work in select real estate opportunities, but are not expected to become the company’s primary development format because Shake Shack is focused on premium food and in-Shack hospitality. Shake Shack said it is maintaining its previously disclosed full-year guidance but expects adjusted EBITDA and net income to land at the low end of their respective ranges, reflecting persistent cost headwinds. During the question-and-answer session, management referenced adjusted EBITDA guidance of $225 million to $235 million. The company expects tougher sales comparisons in the second half, as it laps marketing and value initiatives introduced in the back half of 2025. Still, management reiterated its goal of low-single-digit same-Shack sales growth for the full year and said it remains focused on sustaining positive traffic through marketing, digital engagement and menu innovation. Going forward, Shake Shack will stop issuing quarterly guidance and instead provide annual guidance, Hook said. The company said the change is intended to emphasize long-term management and multi-year value creation over quarterly volatility. Shake Shack, Inc (NYSE: SHAK) is a publicly traded hospitality company known for its modern take on the classic American roadside burger stand. The company operates a chain of quick-casual restaurants offering premium hamburgers, hot dogs, crinkle-cut fries, frozen custard, milkshakes and a curated selection of beer and wine. Shake Shack emphasizes high-quality ingredients, including 100% all-natural Angus beef with no hormones or antibiotics, and works with local suppliers where possible to maintain its commitment to fresh, responsibly sourced food. Shake Shack traces its origins to a hot dog cart opened in New York City's Madison Square Park in 2001 by Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Shake Shack Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Jack in the Box Inc. JACK is scheduled to report third-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Aug. 12. JACK’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in one of the trailing four quarters, and missed on three occasions, the average miss being 13.3%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) is pegged at 90 cents, indicating a fall of 11.8% from $1.02 reported in the year-ago quarter.For revenues, the consensus mark is pegged at $260 million. The metric suggests a decline of 21.9% from the year-ago quarter’s figure.Let us take a look at how things might have shaped up in the quarter to be reported. Jack in the Box’s fiscal third-quarter performance is likely to have benefited from improving same-store sales trends, a better balance of value and premium offerings, enhanced digital offer economics and continued progress in restaurant execution. The company entered the quarter with improving momentum, with quarter-to-date same-store sales approaching flat compared with a 3.8% decline in the fiscal second quarter. Continued value messaging, premium innovation and operational improvements are expected to have supported results in the to-be-reported quarter.Emphasis on balanced barbell strategy is likely to have aided JACK’s performance in the quarter under review. Munch Better Deals helped drive transactions, while Smashed Jack Sliders supported check growth across multiple purchase occasions. The company maintained a consistent $5 value offering and expected its FIFA World Cup initiative to boost fiscal third-quarter sales. Pricing adjustments to select core bundles, with improved value and affordability scores, may have strengthened the company’s value proposition in the to-be reported quarter.Digital and operational initiatives are also likely to have supported results. Jack in the Box refined first- and third-party digital offers to improve check profitability, while gains in customer satisfaction and order accuracy supported restaurant execution. Mini refreshes, which generated low-single-digit same-store sales benefits, may have provided an additional lift. Improving performance at the company’s Chicago restaurants could also have aided results.However, elevated commodity costs are likely to have pressured restaurant-level profitability, with beef inflation expected to remain in the double digits through the fiscal third quarter. Accelerating restaurant closures may also have weighed on franchise revenues and margins. Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Jack in the Box this time. A stock needs to have a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) to beat earnings. However, that's not the case here.Earnings ESP for JACK: Jack in the Box currently has an Earnings ESP of -1.07%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.Jack in the Box’s Zacks Rank: The company currently has a Zacks Rank #3. Here are some stocks from the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector, which, according to our model, have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this reporting cycle. Sweetgreen, Inc. SG has an Earnings ESP of +5.06% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. In the to-be-reported quarter, Sweetgreen’s earnings are expected to register a 35% year-over-year increase. SG’s earnings missed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average miss being 42.4%. CAVA Group, Inc. CAVA currently has an Earnings ESP of +12.00% and a Zacks Rank of 3. In the to-be-reported quarter, CAVA’s earnings are expected to increase 6.3% year over year. CAVA’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters and missed on one occasion, with the average surprise being 16.6%. Brinker International, Inc. EAT currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.12% and a Zacks Rank of 3. In the to-be-reported quarter, Brinker earnings are expected to register a 23.3% year-over-year decline. EAT’s earnings surpassed estimates in all of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 6.8%. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Janus Henderson Sustainable & Impact Core Bond ETF (JACK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Brinker International, Inc. (EAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Sweetgreen, Inc. (SG) : Free Stock Analysis Report CAVA Group, Inc. (CAVA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Brinker International, Inc. EAT is scheduled to report fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Aug. 12, before the opening bell.EAT’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 6.8%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal fourth-quarter earnings per share (EPS) is pegged at $3.07, indicating a rise of 23.3% from $2.49 reported in the year-ago quarter. Brinker International, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Brinker International, Inc. Quote For revenues, the consensus mark is pegged at $1.53 billion. The metric suggests a rise of 4.6% from the year-ago quarter’s figure. Let us take a look at how things might have shaped up in the quarter to be reported. Brinker’s fiscal fourth-quarter performance is likely to have benefited from continued momentum at Chili’s, supported by positive traffic, strong value positioning and improvements in the overall guest experience. Management stated that April started the quarter with mid-single-digit sales growth and positive traffic and expressed confidence that Chili’s would deliver mid-single-digit sales growth and positive traffic for the quarter to be reported.The chicken sandwich platform is likely to have been a key contributor to Chili’s sales and traffic in the to-be-reported quarter. The platform was launched on April 14, with the Big Crispy and Spicy Big Crispy included at the $10.99 opening price point of the 3 for Me platform. The launch was backed by the Better Than Fast Food campaign, emphasizing portion size and value relative to fast-food alternatives.Chili’s continued focus on everyday value, food, service and atmosphere is also expected to have aided customer engagement. Management has emphasized maintaining a compelling value proposition while attracting new guests through marketing and menu innovation. Its operational strategy has centered on simplifying restaurant processes and improving cycle times to support higher throughput. The company noted that its higher-volume “north of 6” restaurants serve 20% to 80% more guests than the current average restaurant, indicating additional capacity for traffic growth over time. Our model predicts fiscal fourth-quarter revenues from Chili’s to rise 5.1% year over year to $1.41 billion.Meanwhile, Maggiano’s is likely to have remained a headwind to consolidated revenue growth. The brand continued to experience negative comparable sales and traffic trends in the previous quarter. However, management noted sequential improvement after adjusting for weather and calendar effects, supported by more abundant portions, enhanced family-style offerings and the return of classic menu items. Improving value scores are encouraging, although management expects the turnaround to remain gradual. Our model predicts fiscal fourth-quarter revenues from Maggiano's to decline 0.4% year over year to $121.9 million.On the earnings front, Brinker is likely to have benefited from sales leverage and labor efficiencies. Management expects continued top-line momentum to provide operating leverage, with labor expected to offset some of the pressure from higher food and beverage costs. Improved restaurant productivity is also likely to have supported profitability. The company also anticipates restaurant margin growth to resume on a year-over-year basis in the fiscal fourth quarter. Our model predicts Food and Beverage Costs to rise 3.6% year over year to $382.5 million.However, higher commodity costs are likely to have tempered earnings growth. Management expects commodity inflation to run in the mid-single digits during the fiscal fourth quarter, with beef remaining a key source of pressure. The company also indicated that food and beverage costs could increase sequentially following the expiration of a beef contract. Our proven model predicts an earnings beat for Brinker this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat, which is exactly the case here.Earnings ESP for EAT: Brinker has an Earnings ESP of +0.12%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.Brinker’s Zacks Rank: The company currently has a Zacks Rank #3. Here are a few other stocks from the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector, which, according to our model, also have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this reporting cycle.Sweetgreen, Inc. SG has an Earnings ESP of +5.06% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.In the to-be-reported quarter, Sweetgreen’s earnings are expected to register a 35% year-over-year increase. SG’s earnings missed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average miss being 42.4%.CAVA Group, Inc. CAVA currently has an Earnings ESP of +12.00% and a Zacks Rank of 3. In the to-be-reported quarter, CAVA’s earnings are expected to increase 6.3% year over year. CAVA’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters and missed on one occasion, with the average surprise being 16.6%.Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. CBRL currently has an Earnings ESP of +133.33% and a Zacks Rank of 3.In the to-be-reported quarter, Cracker Barrel’s earnings are expected to register an 83.8% year-over-year decline. Cracker Barrel’s earnings surpassed estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and missed on one occasion, with the average surprise being 128.6%. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Brinker International, Inc. (EAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (CBRL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Sweetgreen, Inc. (SG) : Free Stock Analysis Report CAVA Group, Inc. (CAVA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research