Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant chain CAVA (NYSE: CAVA) reported Q2 CY2026 results exceeding the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 31.3% year on year to $368.4 million. Its GAAP profit of $0.19 per share was in line with analysts’ consensus estimates.
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CAVA (CAVA) Q2 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $368.4 million vs analyst estimates of $359.7 million (31.3% year-on-year growth, 2.4% beat)
- EPS (GAAP): $0.19 vs analyst estimates of $0.18 (in line)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $54.72 million vs analyst estimates of $52.58 million (14.9% margin, 4.1% beat)
- EBITDA guidance for the full year is $186 million at the midpoint, below analyst estimates of $190.6 million
- Operating Margin: 7.3%, in line with the same quarter last year
- Locations: 476 at quarter end, up from 409 in the same quarter last year
- Same-Store Sales rose 9% year on year (2.1% in the same quarter last year)
- Market Capitalization: $7.17 billion
Company Overview
Starting from a single Washington, D.C. location, CAVA (NYSE: CAVA) operates a fast-casual restaurant chain offering customizable Mediterranean-inspired dishes.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul.
With $1.37 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, CAVA is a mid-sized restaurant chain, which sometimes brings disadvantages compared to larger competitors benefiting from better brand awareness and economies of scale. On the bright side, it can still flex high growth rates because it’s working from a smaller revenue base.
As you can see below, CAVA’s 25.5% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was incredible as it opened new restaurants and increased sales at existing, established dining locations.
This quarter, CAVA reported wonderful year-on-year revenue growth of 31.3%, and its $368.4 million of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 2.4%.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 21.1% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last five years. Still, this projection is noteworthy and suggests the market is baking in success for its menu offerings.
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Restaurant Performance
Number of Restaurants
A restaurant chain’s total number of dining locations often determines how much revenue it can generate.
CAVA sported 476 locations in the latest quarter. Over the last two years, it has opened new restaurants at a rapid clip by averaging 18.1% annual growth, among the fastest in the restaurant sector. This gives it a chance to become a large, scaled business over time.
When a chain opens new restaurants, it usually means it’s investing for growth because there’s healthy demand for its meals and there are markets where its concepts have few or no locations.
Same-Store Sales
The change in a company’s restaurant base only tells one side of the story. The other is the performance of its existing locations, which informs management teams whether they should expand or downsize their physical footprints. Same-store sales provides a deeper understanding of this issue because it measures organic growth at restaurants open for at least a year.
CAVA has been one of the most successful restaurant chains over the last two years thanks to skyrocketing demand within its existing dining locations. On average, the company has posted exceptional year-on-year same-store sales growth of 9.2%. This performance along with its meaningful buildout of new restaurants suggests it’s playing some aggressive offense.
In the latest quarter, CAVA’s same-store sales rose 9% year on year. This performance was more or less in line with its historical levels.
Key Takeaways from CAVA’s Q2 Results
We were impressed by how significantly CAVA blew past analysts’ same-store sales expectations this quarter. We were also glad its revenue outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its full-year EBITDA guidance missed. Overall, we think this was still a solid quarter with some key areas of upside. The stock traded up 10.2% to $67.62 immediately after reporting.
CAVA put up rock-solid earnings, but one quarter doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. If you’re making that decision, you should consider the bigger picture of valuation, business qualities, as well as the latest earnings. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
