US Restaurants: Uneven Rally Creating Opportunities?

Research evidence excerpt

US Restaurants: Uneven Rally Creating Opportunities?

Powered by Lab Global28 JuneResearch2026ab Evidence UBS YES

US Restaurants Equities

AmericasUneven Rally Creating Opportunities?

Restaurants

Dennis Geiger, CFA

Positive macro headlines drive gains across parts of sector; Focus on laggards... Analyst

Our investor discussions last week focused on recent gains across parts of the sector, as dennis.geiger@ubs.com

well as other areas that have lagged, with investors trying to identify opportunities. +1-212-713 9313

Many investors are focused on finding opportunities among restaurants that have Paul Hao

missed the recent rally, including CMG, MCD, and WING, among others. Other Associate Analyst

discussions highlighted more negative sentiment on casual diners given the significant paul.hao@ubs.com

gains recently and concerns that risks exist to 2Q segment earnings (including TXRH and +1-201-352 1091

EAT). Positive consumer commentary from Darden's F4Q earnings last week was Nikhil Gunderia

generally expected, with y/y traffic growth for the company's casual dining brands Associate Analyst

across all income cohorts, even as pressure was noted for consumers under age 35. DRI's nikhil.gunderia@ubs.com

beef cost commentary was generally encouraging and viewed as a positive for +1-212-713 3258

steakhouses and brands with notable beef exposure. Emily Li

Associate Analyst

...with investor interest in sector seemingly increasing some per our discussions emily.li@ubs.com

+1-212-649 8262

Encouragingly, our investor discussions on restaurants increased last week, with

incremental conversations often from generalist investors trying to assess whether the

sector and valuations are interesting given decent compression in recent quarters. While