Insights / Company Diagnostics
Restaurants
SHAK

Shake Shack

Top-quartile growth, but operating margin of 4.3% trails the 14% peer median by 9.7 points.

Activist investor Starboard Value disclosed a stake worth several hundred million dollars and is pushing for US franchising, CNBC reported on August 5, 2026.
Source

Point-in-time analysis. The report was generated on the run date shown below from the filing named, and the news context reflects reporting available on that date. This page is not updated as events move on.

Input
Form 10-K, fiscal year 2025 (year ended December 31, 2025)
Processing time
5
minutes
Output
38
page PDF report and Excel model
Run date
September 16, 2026
Business health score
57
/ 100
Addressable estimate
$33.5M addressable estimate (observed gap $83.8M)
Revenue
$1,445M (FY2025)
Operating margin
4.3%
Data quality
100
Summary

Shake Shack closed fiscal 2025 with revenue of $1,445M, up 15.4%, and net income of $45.7M on $222.4M of operating cash flow. Growth is top quartile against the peer median of 4%, and the operating model is efficient where it is measured directly: inventory turns in under a week, receivables in eight days, and SG&A runs at 12.2% of revenue against a 25% median.

The gap is below the gross profit line. Operating margin of 4.3% trails the peer median of 14% by 9.7 points, and net margin of 3.2% trails 9% by 5.8 points. On the company's revenue base the net margin gap is $83.8M; the report treats $33.5M of it as addressable through store-level labor productivity and menu engineering, and labels that share an estimate, because the peer set is packaged food rather than restaurants and the cost structures differ.

Asset turnover of 0.76x against a 1.2x median reflects a capital-intensive company-operated footprint; the report points to smaller formats and licensing as the directional answer without sizing it. The first 100-day move is a margin diagnostic across the top 50 company-operated locations, and the questions for management follow from it: which cost lines carry the gap, and at what pace the opening mix shifts toward licensed units.

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Full report (PDF)Excel model (XLSX)
Generated by the ValueChaser platform from the public Form 10-K. No account required.
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Top three value levers
01
Operating margin recovery through menu engineering and labor optimization. Addressable estimate $33.5M (observed gap $83.8M). High complexity, 18 months.
02
Asset turnover and footprint optimization via smaller formats and licensing. Unsized; asset turnover of 0.76x trails the peer median of 1.2x. Medium complexity, 12 months.
03
Digital channel expansion and first-party loyalty platform launch. Unsized; directional. Low complexity, 9 months.
Peer benchmark
Revenue grew 15.4% to $1,445M, top quartile against a peer median of 4%. Operating margin of 4.3% is a significant underperformance against the 14% median. SG&A at 12.2% of revenue and inventory at 6.6 days are both top quartile. Gross margin of 72.6% is reported after food and paper costs only and is not scored against the peer set.
First action in the 100-day plan
Launch an operating margin diagnostic across the top 50 company-operated locations to identify labor, food-cost and occupancy bottlenecks.
Not covered by this diagnostic:
The peer set is packaged food and beverage, not restaurants, so the gross margin comparison is excluded and the SG&A and net margin comparisons are indicative. The 10-K has no separate selling line, so SG&A is the general and administrative line. Post-period developments (Project Catalyst, 2026 guidance) appear from market intelligence and are labelled as such.
This analysis is generated by the ValueChaser platform from the company's public Form 10-K. It is not investment advice, does not reflect any non-public information and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the company. Figures are as computed by the platform from the filing indicated above.