Starbucks shares slid around -1.2% in pre-market Monday, following a downgrade by a UBS analyst. Analyst Dennis Geiger lowered rating on the coffeehouse-chain’s stock to “neutral” from “buy”.However, he bumped up his price target on the stock to $78 a share from $72, owing to the company's $2 billion share buyback program and a modest increase in its fiscal 2020 earnings per share estimate. But he cautioned against what he perceives are risks from "downside to more elevated sales/earnings expectations as an offset.

After a hiatus of 20 years, fast food giant McDonalds has returned to deal-making with back to back investments in technology. In a recent announcement, the company confirmed its acquisition of personalized data start up Dynamic Yield followed by a minority stake in mobile app vendor Plexure, which powers its mobile app in 48 countries outside of the U.S. Both deals are fairly small relative to McDonald's overall size, with its total market value of $143.73 billion. But both deals are in-line with the company’s strategy to acquire capabilities through third parties and avoiding costs of building them internally.Also, the company has a poor reputation in terms of its order accuracy and pace of delivery. This current investment might be considered McDonald’s initiation into the tech world.

McDonald’s is buying a 9.9% stake – amounting to 13.8 million shares - in New Zealand-based mobile software maker Plexure, for about $5 million. The deal is expected to allow McDonald's to expand its access to Plexure’s products and services for better customer targeting and functionality among other aspects to boost business.Plexure already provides a global app for discount vouchers and loyalty offers to McDonald's customers in 48 countries outside the U.S. and other markets, including Japan and Italy. The news comes close on the heels of the fast food chain’s another major tech investment.

With subscription services emerging as the new mantra across different industries to lure customers, Restaurant Brands International’s Burger King on Thursday announced the launch of its $5 monthly coffee subscription plan to build brand loyalty. According to the company, the coffee subscription program would be run through its app and is likely to get customers into their stores in the morning to check out their other breakfast offerings. With the battle between the fast food restaurants like Burger King, McDonald’s and Dunkin’ heating up in recent times for a greater share of the early morning customers, Burger King seems to win the first round with its innovative coffee subscription program. Furthermore, the company also introduced its own brand of coffee following the footsteps of its arch rival McDonald’s, who had recently launched McCafe.The company has also been investing in digital across all of its portfolio.

Gunning for its biggest deal in nearly two decades, McDonald’s on Monday announced its plan to acquire Israeli personalization and decision logic technology company, Dynamic Yield. The acquisition is in line with the company’s recent push towards technology across its different U.S. locations, as the company tries to come to terms with the digital revolution. According to the company, McDonald’s is one of the pioneers within its industry space to integrate decision technology into the customer point of sale at a brick and mortar location.The acquisition is likely to help the company by changing digital drive-thru menus based on different factors like weather conditions and the current restaurant traffic. Although the financial details of the deal are yet to be confirmed by either company, according to sources close to the deal McDonald’s is likely to pay more than $300 million - its biggest acquisition in two decades. In 2019, according to the company, it is likely s

Ahead of its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, Starbucks announced it would target two areas: food start-ups and improving its in-store experience to achieve future growth. The company announced that it plans to invest $100 million in a new venture fund with Valor Equity Partners, which has previously invested in Tesla and SpaceX. Over the last couple of years, investing in start-ups had become increasingly popular amongst the different food companies owing to the rapidly changing taste of customers. Faced by a similar issue, this investment provides Starbucks a window of opportunity to achieve future growth as it tries to address less customer footfall for its calorie-heavy Frappucinos.Adopting a similar strategy, struggling food giant Kraft Heinz launched its own fund in October, following the example of Big Food rivals Campbell Soup, Kellogg and General Mills. Further the Seattle-based coffee giant announced that starting this summer, the company would focus on impr

American multi-national coffee giant, Starbucks, recently announced it is revamping its rewards program, a decision in-line with the company’s strategy to bring even more people into the program by offering more choice and by being more attractive. Starting April 16th, the coffee company's rewards members would start earning reward points sooner and would also have more options when redeeming points.It is also expected to help the company learn more about their customers. Currently, the rewards program gives its customers two points or stars for every dollar they spend.

The results are so positive that the company is now expanding its loyalty program nationwide, as its digital sales grew 66% in Q4 of 2018 accounting for nearly 13% of overall sales. The rewards systems needs customers to enroll via the website or app, receiving 10 points for each dollar spent.First time users will also earn free chips and guacamole and can accrue rewards online, in store or on the app. As digital sales grew, the company deemed it fit to collaborate with Venmo, a digital wallet company, depositing surprise amounts of $1 to $500 in fan’s accounts through March 15.

Lest we forget, former Starbucks Corporation (SBUX - Free Report)    CEO and now a presidential candidate Howard Schultz had cautioned of this transformation in December 2016.And that prediction, rather unfortunately, has come true for major brick-and-mortar retailers including restaurants. READ MORE...

Papa John’s International fell short of analysts’ fourth quarter expectations, as same store sales declined by 8.1% in North America. Outside of North America, same-store sales saw smaller declines of 2.6%. In the fiscal fourth quarter, Papa John’s rocked to a net loss of $13.8 million, or 44 cents per share, from net income of $28.5 million, or 81 cents per share, a year earlier.Adjusted earnings per share clocked-in at 15 cents versus an expected 17 cents. It is alleged that sales suffered after the company’s founder and former CEO, John Schnatter, used a racial slur in a conference call. Since then the company has been trying to improve its public image.

Wendy’s reported lower-than-expected growth in same-store sales, and had marginally higher earnings compared to analysts’ estimates. The fast food restaurant chain raked in 16 cents per share for the three months ending December, beating analysts’ estimates by only a penny.It is 9 cents a share higher compared to the year-ago quarter. Total revenues rose +3.6% year-over-year to $397.8 million in the quarter, shy of analysts’ expectation of $400 million (according to the Street).

Domino's Pizza’s same-store sales grew at the slowest pace in four years, and the pizza chain reported lower-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter. The company’s earnings for the quarter increased +25% year over year to touch $2.62, but fell short of Wall Street consensus estimate of $2.69 per share.  Its same-store sales in the U.S. rose +3.6%, lagging behind the consensus estimate of +6.6%.  Domino’s group revenues grew +13% to $1.08 billion, missing the consensus forecast of $1.1 billion. The company hiked its quarterly dividend by 18% to 65 cents a share, which is scheduled for payment for March 29 to shareholders of record on March 15.

Starbucks will launch its first all-day dining cafe in Shanghai, featuring fresh Italian food, the U.S. coffee giant said in a statement on Friday. The move signals part of the company’s effort to “to play the long game in China,” according to Belinda Wong, CEO of Starbucks China.READ MORE...

The burrito and bowl maker’s latest fourth quarter report revealed a stunning 6.1% comps growth, 2.2% of which came from increased transactions.This was the best comps result in nearly two years. Restaurant level operating margin surged from 14.9% to 17% in Q4, even though it was lower than 18.7% in the third quarter, 19.7% in the second quarter, or 19.5% in the first quarter of the 2018. The company attributes the sequential reduction in restaurant-level margins to a big increase in what Chipotle classifies as "other operating costs."

However the EPS was -17.5% lower compared to the same quarter the prior year. Revenue of $1.558 billion fell short of analysts expectations, and also was slightly less than the year-ago quarter’s figure.However, worldwide same-store sales increased +3%, exceeding analysts' estimate of +2.48% (based on Refinitiv data). CEO Greg Creed said, "Focus on our four growth drivers, increased collaboration and a new mindset are fueling strong results."

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. CMG 13.4% reported fourth-quarter results that handily exceeded expectations from a growth in comparable sales and total transactions.Here is a summary of how some of the Street's top analysts reacted to the print. Read More...

Many analysts raised their price targets for Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.'s stock, following the company’s solid earnings and sales report. On Wednesday, the fast-food chain of restaurants reported fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.72, which far outpaced the $1.37 a share figure expected by analysts (based on Refinitiv data). Revenues of $1.23 billion for the quarter beat estimate of $1.194 billion.Chipotle is reportedly upping the ante on its online market, by upgrading its kitchens, boosting pickup shelves for displaying online orders, and testing out its drive-through windows services that allow customers to pick up what they ordered online. Several analysts seem to believe that there’s strong potential in the restaurant chain’s recent performance.

Papa John's International Inc. got a brand-new chairman. Starboard Value LP will make a $200 million investment in the troubled pizza chain and the investment firm's CEO will become chairman, the companies confirmed early on Monday.READ MORE...

McDonald's  KFC  and Pret a Manger have joined with UK supermarkets to warn that crashing out of the European Union will result in "significant" disruptions to their supply chains.READ MORE...

Targeting low cost real estate and offering affordable coffee to young professionals, Luckin is a technology-forward startup that has already made name for itself in a short span of time.  Should Luckin's growth worry Starbucks? It hasn't worried analysts yet, who maintain an overweight on Starbucks with a $70 price target. Luckin is still a start-up, and in China per-capita coffee consumption is less than one cup/year compared to 300 cups in the U.S.So, there is an ample opportunity for growth for both companies. Second, Starbucks also has a strong presence in China through its 3,251 stores, and its recent collaboration with UberEats is expected to act as a catalyst in further strengthening its foothold.