Article Excerpt:
TWST: Would you give us an idea of what you are covering in the restaurant space.Ms. Miller: I cover 12 stocks right now, ranging in market cap from $18 million up to $20 billion ' BJ's Restaurants (BJRI), Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD), California Pizza Kitchen (CPKI), The Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), Chipotle (CMG), Cosi (COSI), Granite City Food (GCFB), Jones Soda (JSDA), McCormick & Schmick's (MSSR), Peet's Coffee & Tea (PEET), Sonic (SONC) and Starbucks (SBUX), Starbucks being the largest. So there is a big size difference there. My focus is really in accordance with ThinkEquity's focus on growth stocks. That can mean a number of different metrics in growth. It can be top line, bottom line; it can be growth of a new concept or a secondary concept. And it can be a range of companies with a range of market caps.
TWST: So there is no concrete theme in how you approach it.
Ms. Miller: Right. I have been covering restaurants as a Senior Analyst
for almost five years and it has actually become more of a theme over
time. I look at it as a premium theme. There tends to be a tendency in
the way that consumers trade up, so our philosophy is that there is a
certain demographic that is completely resilient to economic trends, and
that customer continues to spend time and money making the restaurant
sector more of a staple than a cyclical. So a company like McCormick &
Schmick's, for example, is very well positioned within the seafood
segment and they have created a niche there, especially in the public
market. A company like Jones Soda is really the premium within the soda
category, doing something different from the traditional players. Also,
the advent of quick casual fits very well into that premium theme.
Tickers included in this excerpt: ACAS, AINV, AMAM, ARCC, BJRI, BWLD, CAKE, CBOU, CCRT, CIT, CMG, COSI, CPKI, CSE, DFC, FIF, GCFB, GMT, JSDA, KONA, LEND, MCD, MCGC, MRLN, MRT, MSSR, NGPC, PEET, PFCB, PNRA, RUTH, SBUX, SONC, TXRH
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