BNHN: Looks like it could be a viable performer, Grommit.
I'll pass on my idea of BUNZ -- too much negativity on Yahoo, and I'm leery of restaurant stocks like BUNZ that are selling near lows now. Something's not right. Every other restaurant chain (stock) I see (and I'm not implying I've looked at them all - or even carefully) is trading closer to highs than to lows - BUNZ is too much the exception.
Benihana (BNHN) has a stockholder base different from most chains. Institutions (15, by my reference) own only 7.8% of the outstanding shares whereas in the restaurant industry overall, institutions average over 50%. BNHN is closely held, with insiders owning more than 5.6M shares of the 7.37M shares outstanding. Maybe institutions can't get a big enough slice of the company, so that's eliminated a source of demand, hence kept the stock price relatively low.
(??)
Looking at some metrics, BNHN does look inexpensive compared to other restaurant stocks. On the other hand, looking at BNHN's p/e, p/sales - those are on the high end of BNHN's past years' averages. Which is reasonable or okay by me if BNHN's earnings increase next year as analysts predict.
BNHN - so different from burgers/fried chicken/tacos/red lobsters/pasta palaces/sandwiches - looks a little too specialized to me. OTOH (I have a lot of hands here -g-), it's selling at a value or "riskiness impression" no worse than many other restaurant stocks when I bought them. (And now that some have seen multiple expansions, there might be more risk just in holding them than in making purchase of BNHN.)
If I don't get discouraged or distracted by a crashing market on Monday, I'll likely take an exploratory position in BNHN.
Thanks,
Paul Senior |
