Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant chain CAVA (NYSE: CAVA) will be reporting earnings this Tuesday after market hours. Here’s what to look for.
CAVA missed analysts’ revenue expectations by 1.8% last quarter, reporting revenues of $280.6 million, up 20.2% year on year. It was a slower quarter for the company, with a significant miss of analysts’ same-store sales estimates and a miss of analysts’ revenue estimates.
Is CAVA a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.
This quarter, analysts are expecting CAVA’s revenue to grow 19.9% year on year to $292.3 million, slowing from the 38.9% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.13 per share.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. CAVA has only missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates once over the last two years, exceeding top-line expectations by 2.8% on average.
Looking at CAVA’s peers in the restaurants segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Shake Shack delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 15.9%, beating analysts’ expectations by 1%, and Chipotle reported revenues up 7.5%, in line with consensus estimates. Shake Shack traded up 7.4% following the results while Chipotle was down 18.3%.
Read our full analysis of Shake Shack’s results here and Chipotle’s results here.
The outlook for 2025 remains clouded by potential trade policy changes and corporate tax discussions, which could impact business confidence and growth. While some of the restaurants stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 6.1% on average over the last month. CAVA is down 16.1% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $83.56 (compared to the current share price of $53.56).
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