Beware of Valuation When It Comes to Domino’s Pizza, Inc.

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Domino's stock - Beware of Valuation When It Comes to Domino’s Pizza, Inc.

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As Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) has risen to the forefront of American entertainment, the kids have popularized the phrase “Netflix and chill.” But forget about that. The real trend that is sweeping America — and the rest of the world — is “Netflix and chew.”

Take a look at the stock charts of Netflix and Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ) over the past three years. They look pretty similar. Granted, NFLX stock has outperformed DPZ stock (+300% for NFLX versus +140% for DPZ), but both are still big winners.

Why is there such a strong correlation between these two stocks? Because they both fit in perfectly with the at-home economy trend that is growing rapidly. Instead of going out to the movies, shopping at malls and eating out, consumers are now watching movies on Netflix, shopping on Amazon.com, Inc. (NADAQ:AMZN), and ordering pizza to eat at home.

As such, DPZ has been a big winner over the past several years.

But at current levels, the valuation on Domino’s stock appears to have sprinted ahead of fundamentals. Plus, this quarter’s numbers might not live up to expectations, and that could be disastrous for the richly valued Domino’sstock.

All in all, I’m not a buyer of Domino’s stock at these levels. Rather, I’m a seller.

Here’s why:

Domino Stock’s Growth Drivers Will Be Diluted

Domino’s has been a big winner in the at-home economy because pizza is the exact type of food that was made to be ordered online and delivered to your doorstep. Thus, DPZ’s business model was naturally levered to succeed in the at-home economy, and as a result, Domino’s was the first to arrive at the online food-ordering-and-delivery party.

But that party is now becoming crowded. Thanks to the mainstream emergence of food ordering and delivery apps like GrubHub Inc (NYSE:GRUB), Uber Eats, and Postmates, consumers can now order food from essentially any restaurant and have it delivered to their doorsteps.

Thus, DPZ is no longer the only or go-to option. It is simply one of many, many options.

Growth at DPZ won’t entirely go away because of this elevated competition. Domino’s will still be a winner in the at-home shift. Plus, the company has a tremendous global growth narrative through unit expansion. There really isn’t any global leader in the fast pizza market, and as such, DPZ does have a clearly pathway to global domination of the fast pizza market.

The company is also continually improving its online food ordering and delivery technology to be one step ahead of the competition. And, of course, DPZ does make really tasty pizza.

But, elevated competition in the digital food ordering and delivery game will inevitably erode DPZ’s growth rates over the next several years.

Domino’s Stock Is Overvalued

This erosion in growth rates is already happening. Over the past three years, same-store sales growth has trended from 12% to 10.5% to 7.7%.

Elevated competition ensures that this trend will continue. Slower comparable sales growth in the low- to mid-single digit range plus global unit expansion should drive somewhere around 10% revenue growth per year over the next five years.

Operating margins continue to grind higher, thanks to improved efficiency and scale. This should continue. Over the past several years, operating margins have gone from 17.4% to 18.7%. Over the next several years, this rate of growth will likely persist, and I think 20% operating margins are a reasonable target in five years.

Revenue growth of 10% per year puts revenues at $4.5 billion in five years. A 20% operating margin implies operating profits of $900 million. After $100 million in interest expense and 25% for taxes, and on a presumably reduced share count of 40 million, that equates to roughly $15 in earnings per share in five years.

A market-average growth multiple of 19-times forward earnings on those $15 earnings implies a four-year forward price target of $285. Discounted back by 10% per year, that equates to a present value of just under $200.

Bottom Line on Domino’s Stock

DPZ stock is overvalued here, considering the rising threat of competition in the digital food ordering and delivery market. As such, the stock looks particularly susceptible to any bad news, and bad news could come in the form of worse-than-expected quarterly numbers.

The macro-data in the restaurant industry hasn’t been the best lately, and Domino’s search interest trends appear to have flattened out in early 2018. Thus, I don’t think the numbers will be that good. If so, then Domino’s stock could get whacked.

As of this writing, Luke Lango was long AMZN. 


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2018/04/beware-valuation-comes-dominos-pizza-inc-dpz-stock/.

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