Panera Bread Company (PNRA)

Great food for lunch & baby boomers, great place for loners

Good product with innovative, frequent, good quality additions to the menu with higher prices/margins. Attractive place to meet and eat for families and business people. Lots of room for expansion to new markets.

fundamentals and momentum; favorable StockScouter rating

Growth is no longer there. not able to keep raising prices - people will only pay so much soup and sandwich.

a good stock

I don't see Panera having any difficulty sustaining growth or margins. They are priced roughly even with the overall market on an earnings and cash flow basis, yet their growth should easily outpace the overall US market over the long term. Not the best or cheapest company but solidly above average.

smart management

Earnings at Panera Bread should continue to rise. Operating margins, which had been under pressure for some time, are beginning to recover as the company realizes the benefits from various profit-enhancing initiatives, including implementing price increases, introducing more margin-conscious product promotion, and improving purchasing.

Revenue could slow this year, they have scaled-back development efforts and building new stores, also if recession continues could have effect on revenue.

10 dollar foot longs can't compete against 5 dollar foot longs.

IBD 100. I am alittle reluctant because Caps rating is only 2. However, personally, I like the company.

Huge momentum. Strong sector

While Panera is a strong company with consistant growth, it is very close to its 52 week high and with the S & P 500 still roughly 50% off its highs, outperformance seems very unlikely.

Management constantly tests new menus, monitors their stores to ensure clean and appealing restaurants and is now moving into Canada, trying smaller outlets and increasing advertising. Once consumers try Panera's, they will never revert to McD, BK or the rest of the grease pits.

overpriced wannabe fancy fast food.

Good affordable offerings, healthy, trendy.

overextended, overexpanded company whose earnings are likely to fall significantly the next few years, and consequently lead to a collapse of the current stock price due to valuation & already institutional ownership.

The company has a great track record and excellent leadership to make it through these hard times. The product is excellent and they have the best service of any restaurant. Checkthere 1, 5 & 10 year results,you will be impressed.

Wow, see Alyce Lomax's column on 1/28/09, where she points out that PNRA has surged 30% in a year when its store traffic actually declined and most of its increased revenue was due to menu price increases. Add to that a P/E of 25 and 30% of PNRA shares shorted, and I see a declining price ahead.

There seems to be too many liabilities for Panera to continue to grow; I currently am holding shares and will probably hold for about another year before seeing whether to sell or increase the position. Since I enjoy their product, I hope they can recover over the next year and get back to the good growth.