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Cava Group Posts Strong Results, But Outlook Holds Back Stock

Bill McColl

Fri, May 16, 2025, 6:48 AM 2 min read

Cava Group beat first-quarter profit and sales estimates, but its outlook wasn't as strong as some had anticipated.
The Mediterranean restaurant chain kept its same-restaurant sales growth and restaurant-level profit margin unchanged from its previous outlook, and it sees costs higher.
Co-founder and CEO Brett Schulman said the company faced economic uncertainty and challenging weather in the quarter.

Cava Group (CAVA) shares fell Friday, a day after the Mediterranean fast-casual chain's outlook offset better-than-expected results.

The company didn't change its estimates for full-year same-restaurant sales growth (6.0% to 8.0%) and restaurant-level profit margin (24.8% to 25.2%) from the guidance it gave in February. It also raised its prediction for pre-opening costs to $14.5 million to $15.5 million from $14.0 million to $15.0 million.

However, it did increase its outlooks for net new Cava restaurant openings to a range of 64 to 68 from 62 to 66, and adjusted EBITDA to $152.0 million to $159.0 million from $150.0 million to $157.0 million.

In the first quarter, Cava reported earnings per share of $0.22 on revenue that surged 28% year-over-year to $331.8 million. Both were above Visible Alpha forecasts. Same-restaurant sales grew 10.8%, also above estimates, and traffic rose 7.5%.

Co-founder and CEO Brett Schulman said the performance showed the continuing strength of the company's category-defining brand, "in spite of economic uncertainty and challenging weather."

In a note to clients, JPMorgan analysts remained bullish on Cava, affirming their recent re-upgrade of the stock with a "buy now and own for the long term" opinion. They added the company was "comping well in a difficult environment."

Including Friday morning's 3% decline, shares of Cava Group are nearly 15% lower in 2025.