Jack in the Box Inc. popped to a new high for the year after Jim Cramer, host of the hit CNBC show “Mad Money”, made bullish comments on the fast-food purveyor, financial media outlet Benzinga said.
Cramer, speaking on CNBC, said Jack in the Box could split off its comparatively fast-growing Qdoba Mexican Grill as an independent company, the report said.
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Jack in the Box, up about 61 percent year-to-date, changed hands recently at $80.41, up 1.5 percent, Benzinga said.
“I could see someone taking a stake and asking that the company divided in two and the company agrees, ” Cramer said. “If they took the next step and divided it into Qdoba and Jack in the Box, you got a hundred dollar stock and I think you’d have it probably in a week.”
Same-store sales grew 2 percent in fiscal 2014 for Jack in the Box restaurants and 6 percent for Qdoba. As of September 28, the Jack in the Box system included 2, 250 restaurants, of which 431 were company-operated and 1, 819 were operated as franchises.
The Qdoba system, acquired by Jack in the Box in 2003, and described by the company as the second-largest “fast-casual” Mexican restaurant chain in the United States, included 638 restaurants as of September 28. Roughly half of Qdoba restaurants are franchises.