during tough economic times, because of their relatively cheap prices and perception of being an affordable luxury.Investors will likely look to April for a better idea of consumer-spending trends, Bank of America Securities analyst Sara Senatore wrote in a research note published Wednesday.
Starting in the second quarter, restaurants will face comparisons to last year's sales bump driven by double-digit price increases, so they'll have to depend on higher traffic to drive sales growth.
The relatively high valuations for restaurant stocks bring a downside for the industry, McCarthy said. McDonald's, Starbucks, Chipotle,and Yum are all trading at more than 30 times their price-to-earnings ratio, according to Factset data.