lundi 14 août 2017

Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD)

In the past, I've never been that much aware of the hype about Buffalo Wild Wings. Having been aware of it, I could have made a lot of money, buying some shares at about 35$, in the summer of 2007, then selling them today at about 112$.

But I could also have lost a lot of money, buying the shares at about 195$, in the summer of 2015, then selling them today at about 112$. Because the EPS of Buffalo Wild Wings grew a lot in the past, but the growth has been disappointing lately.

I've recently been in the states for an amazing journey. And I've had to occasion to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings. And I didn't really liked the experience. Not because it was bad. But simply because I don't have the right profile to eat there.

That chain is an equivalent of "La cage aux sports" which you surely know if you live in Quebec. You probably have something similar if you live in Toronto or Vancouver. I don't know what it could be because I don't leave very often my province. Why should I? The best poutine is here.

But, anyway, Buffalo Wild Wings is that kind of fucking restaurant which is full of TV, with a game of baseball there, and a game of hockey there and a game of basketball there and a game of tennis there with that incredible Eugenie Bouchard and her amazing selfie skills.

Customers are overweight boys eating fat meals watching athletes who only eat vegetables. And there's noise. Lots of noise. Some people call that noise "ambiance. And you'll applause when your favorite hockey teams scores. It makes you forget about how boring and meaningless your life is. Because you feel part of a group. A group of supporters of a team that doesn't know who you are and that surely wouldn't give a shit about you even if they knew you. But you applause nonetheless because you need to be part of a group.

And you eat your chicken wings, and you have sauce on the face and on your fingers. And you lick your dirty fingers which were dirty even before touching the wings and you drink your beer and you have a great moment in that noisy environment.

Well, anyway. I didn't invest in that company and I'll probably never do. Not only because I didn't like it that much but because numbers are just OK with that business.

That's a picture of my chicken wings up there. They were good and sold at a fair price. It's not because I didn't like the ambiance that everything was shitty.

2 commentaires:

  1. Love your sarcasm Haha!

    I like their numbers especially consistent ROE, growing revenue, growing EPS and free cash flow per share while minimizing share issuance (18M 10 years ago and it is 17M now which is pretty impressive) but did not like the recent performance and seems that they are getting over-leveraged lately while their gross and net margins are significantly lower. Still a better stock than the other 90 % of publicly traded stocks but I agree, I don't love it that much.

    RépondreSupprimer
  2. Have any of you been to a Dave & Buster's (stock symbol: PLAY)? Margins are much higher when you're not just serving food but getting the customers to play all kinds of arcade games. Keep an eye on PLAY.

    RépondreSupprimer