Should you short DineEquity (DIN)?
At first glance at this rather ridiculous graph, one is immediately inclined to say YES, bring it on! However, the chart looks a little less silly if you expand the time period to, say two years:
Before we get into the drama behind these charts, let’s introduce the company…
The company
Based in Glendale, Calif., DineEquity and its franchisees own or operate almost 3,400 restaurants under the Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar and IHOP brands. The company owns the Applebee’s (with 1,992 system-wide restaurants as of March 31, 2009) and IHOP restaurant chains (2400 restaurants), classified as ‘casual dining’, that is, dining at a rather modest price deemed to be less sensitive to discretionary consumer spending. Read more.