Yum! Brands raised, Wendy’s cut as Barclays prefers casual dining and specialty names

Barclays upgraded shares of Yum! Brands (NYSE:) to Overweight and downgraded Wendy’s (NASDAQ:) to Equal Weight in a note to clients Wednesday.

The firm said in its note that within the restaurant sector, it expects discretionary (casual dining, specialty) to continue to outperform.

Barclays analysts raised the YUM price target to $146 from $126 per share, while the WEN price target was cut to $21 from $23 per share.

“YUM is a large cap, global restaurant portfolio company with three industry-leading, global quick service brands, expected to deliver an average 6% unit & 3% comp growth over the next three years,” said the bank.

“While comp growth will vary, we believe unit growth should be the primary focus for driving sustainable, consistent revenue growth over time,” they added.

Meanwhile, Barclays described Wendy’s as a “small cap, primarily domestic, single brand restaurant company.” It expects WEN to deliver an average of 3% unit and 2% comp growth over the next three years.

“While comp growth will vary, we believe unit growth should be the primary focus for driving sustainable, consistent revenue growth over time,” wrote Barclays.