This is from the weekly restaurant finance newsletter The Bottom Line. To get this in your inbox every Monday morning, click here.
Meme investors jumped all over Wendy’s stock this week and took some other restaurants with it. The company’s stock was up about 8% on the week overall after soaring more than 40% at one point on Wednesday morning. Other companies, notably Jack in the Box, also saw some benefit as retail investors pushed into the sector.
On the week, restaurant stocks were up about 1%, while the broader market was down.
That was a rare bit of outperformance. Since November, restaurant stocks are down about 13%. By comparison, the S&P 500 is up about 19% over that time. While technology and AI stocks have driven a lot of stock market movement of late, that gap is difficult to ignore.
The industry’s stocks are weak because a lot of restaurant companies have been underperforming. Restaurant sales have been weak for three years. There are concerns about industry saturation and costs, while a value war threatens margins. And it could be some time before it breaks from that cycle.
But the industry is more resilient than it appears. For all the recriminations about weak traffic and profitability and over-expansion, the industry is still generating actual sales growth. So maybe the Reddit crowd jumping into Wendy’s and other industry stocks are onto something.
Regardless, it’s a welcome respite from the usual direction industry stocks have been heading of late.
This week’s financial news
We had a great conversation with the CEO of the company that makes all the pies for McDonald’s. Hope you enjoy this one.
We ate gas station chicken wings and liked them enough to issue a warning to Wingstop. And then we wrote about why Casey’s has such a successful food business.
My colleagues Lisa Jennings, Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn took a deep dive into Detroit, which you really should read. And then when you’re done read Pat’s story about cold foam, which is hot right now.
Speaking of cities in Michigan, the Ann Arbor-based Domino’s has a new CEO in Joe Jordan. And my colleague Alicia Kelso looked at the tenure of soon-to-be-former CEO Russ Weiner.
Steve Cirulis was clearly the best hire in the history of Wendy’s because the stock jumped 30% afterward.
I have to admit that I really like this new campaign from Carl’s Jr.
Why are so many restaurant chains shutting down? Blame the post-pandemic restaurant economic environment.
Number of the week
Restaurant hiring was slow, really slow, on average in 2024 and 2025. But it has absolutely picked up so far in 2026. But restaurant hiring this summer will be slow.
Quote of the week
“This is the stuff dreams are made of. When a little cotton farmer and his family can grow, and we could be selling to one of the biggest and most iconic brands in the world, it’s a miracle.” -Paula Marshall, CEO of Bama Companies, on her 99-year-old, family business becoming the supplier of pies to McDonald’s.
On the blog
I wrote about Wendy’s, Casey’s and why little things matter right now. Check out all my blog posts at The Bottom Line.
On the podcasts
On A Deeper Dive I spoke with Steele Smiley, the founder of Crisp & Green. On The Week in Restaurants we talked about Domino’s, Detroit, On the Border and other things.
For questions, comments or story ideas, send me an email at jonathan.maze@informa.com. And follow me on Twitter at @jonathanmaze. And also LinkedIn. And TikTok.