Casual restaurant chain Portillo’s (NASDAQ:PTLO) will be reporting earnings tomorrow before market hours. Here’s what to expect.

Portillo's missed analysts’ revenue expectations by 2.1% last quarter, reporting revenues of $178.3 million, up 6.9% year on year. It was a satisfactory quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ EPS estimates but a miss of analysts’ same-store sales estimates.

Is Portillo's a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Portillo’s revenue to decline 1.4% year on year to $185.1 million, a reversal from the 24.5% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.06 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings.

Looking at Portillo’s peers in the traditional fast food segment, some have already reported their Q4 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Dutch Bros delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 34.9%, beating analysts’ expectations by 7.6%, and Wendy's reported revenues up 6.2%, topping estimates by 2.1%. Dutch Bros traded up 29% following the results while Wendy’s stock price was unchanged.

Read our full analysis of Dutch Bros’s results here and Wendy’s results here.

Stocks generally had a good 2024. The Fed fought high inflation and won without sending the economy into a recession, otherwise lovingly known as a soft landing. The US Central Bank is now cutting rates. That, plus the election of Donald Trump in November 2024, sent markets even higher, and while some of the traditional fast food stocks have shown solid performance, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 2.4% on average over the last month. Portillo's is up 5.2% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $15.60 (compared to the current share price of $14.08).

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