What Happened?
Shares of fast-food chain Jack in the Box (NASDAQ:JACK) fell 15.5% in the morning session after the company reported weak fourth-quarter 2025 results that missed analyst expectations for revenue and earnings.
The fast-food chain's revenue fell sharply by 25.5% year-over-year to $349.5 million, falling short of Wall Street's projections. The disappointment continued on the bottom line, with the company posting a GAAP loss of $0.13 per share, a significant miss compared to the consensus estimate of a $1.06 profit. A key driver for the poor performance was a 6.7% decline in same-store sales, which measures sales at locations open for at least a year. Furthermore, profitability was squeezed as the operating margin compressed to 13.3% from 15.8% in the prior year's quarter.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Jack in the Box’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 56 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Jack in the Box and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 12 months ago when the stock gained 18.8% on the news that the company reported fourth-quarter results that exceeded analysts' expectations for same-store sales, EPS, and EBITDA. Additionally, its full-year EBITDA guidance came in above estimates, highlighting strong performance. Overall, this quarter had some key positives.
Jack in the Box is down 1.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $18.46 per share, it is trading 53% below its 52-week high of $39.29 from February 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Jack in the Box’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $186.22.
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