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Wendy’s pulls full-year outlook, targeting a traffic-driven turnaround
Wendy’s cut its quarterly dividend to $0.07 per share and paused share buybacks for 2026 after systemwide sales fell 6.5% and adjusted EPS dropped to $0.18.
Wendy’s held its second-quarter earnings call on August 7 under new President and CEO Robert Wright, with CFO Steven Cirulis joining, and the company said it removed its full-year outlook after traffic declined and franchisee economics tightened. According to Yahoo Finance, Wright said the company’s core issues were fewer customer visits, value slipping, and strained unit performance across the system.
In the quarter, global systemwide sales fell 6.5%, while Wendy’s said customer satisfaction improved in the US even as traffic dropped. US company-operated restaurants outperformed the broader system by 280 basis points, and the company reported international same-restaurant sales of 8.6% after excluding a soft Canadian market.
Wright outlined five strategic priorities, including rebuilding the menu around quality and value, sharpening marketing, tightening restaurant operations, improving the digital and loyalty experience, and resuming unit growth. The company also reported keeping its rollout going, opening 21 new US restaurants and 27 internationally during the quarter, even as it closed 289 US restaurants in the first half of the year.
Cost pressures weighed on profitability, with commodity costs rising about 9% and labor costs climbing roughly 4%, leading to US company-operated restaurant margin of 13.8%. Adjusted EBITDA fell to $124.1 million, down $22.5 million year over year, and adjusted EPS came in at $0.18, while management said it does not expect systemwide sales to return to growth in the third or fourth quarter, according to Yahoo Finance.