DineEquity, Inc. (DIN) is being featured today as the Zacks #1 Rank Top Performer with a gain of more than 4%.

DIN, the parent company of Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar and IHOP Restaurants, is 1 of 5 companies from the Retail-Restaurants industry on the 234-stock Zacks #1 Rank List. The other 4 companies are The Cheesecake Factory Inc. (CAKE), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG), Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. (BAGL) and The Steak n Shake Company (SNS).

Earnings estimates for DIN are up in the past month after the company pushed past a difficult economic landscape to report better-than-expected earnings per share. In fact, DIN has now beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 3 consecutive quarters.

Earnings Estimates

The Zacks Consensus Estimate presently stands at $1.96 per share for this year, marking a gain of 22.5% from $1.60 over the past 30 days. Of the 4 covering analysts for this period, three revised higher to bring about this advance.

Next year has also enjoyed upward revisions over the past month, sending the Zacks Consensus Estimate to $2.38 per share. In addition to marking a 6.7% advance, that result also suggests year-over-year profit improvement of more than 21%.

Second Quarter

The “difficult macroeconomic environment” put a lot of pressure on same-store sales during the second quarter. Domestic system-wide same-store sales for IHOP were down 0.6%, while Applebee’s decreased 4.3%.

Nevertheless, DIN was able to put together a solid performance, including better-than-expected EPS, thanks to controlling expenses, sustaining operating margin improvements and retiring debt.

Excluding items, earnings per share reached 74 cents, which easily surpassed the year-ago result. It also marked a more than 105% surprise over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 36 cents. This was the third straight surprise in the triple digits for DIN.

Chairman/CEO Julia A. Stewart stated, “We will continue to employ value-oriented promotions, menu updates and enhanced marketing strategies in the months ahead, and I am confident that we have the right people and plans in place to navigate through this economic cycle and deliver on our long-term plans.”Zacks Investment Research