New York, May 28, 2026, 14:03 (EDT)
- Texas Roadhouse was trading at $180.90 Thursday afternoon, off 0.3%.
- TD Cowen raised its price target to $205 from $192 and kept its buy rating.
- Beef prices are still the big variable as the company kept its forecast for 6% to 7% commodity inflation this year.
Texas Roadhouse fell in Thursday’s Nasdaq session. TD Cowen lifted its price target, but the steakhouse chain continued to face investor worries about high food costs despite strong traffic.
The stock dropped 0.3% to $180.90, after hitting an intraday high of $182.67. That put the Louisville, Kentucky-based company’s market cap near $12.0 billion. Nasdaq traded on a normal schedule, with regular hours from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern. May 28 was not a 2026 market holiday, according to .
TD Cowen just bumped its target on the stock to $205 from $192, sticking with its buy call. That’s coming less than a day after another call hit Wall Street. Analyst sentiment is mixed — MarketBeat shows a consensus Hold and a $196.36 average price target. A price target is what analysts think a stock could hit in the next year.
Texas Roadhouse’s stock moves have been shaped by a balance between rising sales and investor concern over margin pressure from beef and labor costs. Earlier this month, the chain posted first-quarter revenue up 12.8% at $1.63 billion with diluted EPS up 9.6% to $1.87.
Texas Roadhouse said same-store sales climbed 7.1% at company-owned locations for the quarter. CEO Jerry Morgan said in a statement, “strong traffic trends continue to fuel sales growth.” Texas Roadhouse Investor Relations
Texas Roadhouse said its restaurant margin dollars for the first quarter rose 10.5% to $264.4 million. But margin as a percentage of sales fell 36 basis points. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. Management pointed to 6.2% commodity inflation, with beef and other food input costs up, plus 3.8% wage and labor inflation.
On the call, Morgan played down the early results, saying, “the game is never won in the first quarter.” Michael Bailen, vice president of investor relations, called beef “the lion’s share of the shift” in Texas Roadhouse’s commodity outlook. The Motley Fool
Texas Roadhouse said same-store sales rose 6.5% in the first five weeks of the second quarter from a year ago. The company raised menu prices by about 1.9% in early April. Texas Roadhouse is sticking with an outlook for 6% to 7% commodity inflation in 2026, and kept targets for positive comp sales and 5% to 6% growth in store-weeks.
Restaurant stocks moved in different directions. Brinker International, which runs Chili’s, was off 1.4%. Darden Restaurants slipped 0.1%, and Yum Brands lost 1.1%. The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund was up 0.2%.
Beef prices are the risk here. If they stay elevated more than management projects, or if customers balk at higher menus, shares may have trouble holding a price-to-earnings ratio close to 29. Higher traffic has offset a lot of that risk up to now. It might have to keep offsetting it.
