Jack in the Box Inc.
🔔 Watch stock
Assessment
Our Rating
A journalistic assessment by our editorial team at the time of the deep dive — it rates the company, not the entry point. Not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell.
We found at least one documented issue that threatens the company itself — regardless of how the stock is currently valued.
Why this colour
Whoever buys today is betting that guests return before falling same-restaurant sales catch up with the leveraged cash flow — and pays for an optically cheap stock whose firm value belongs mostly to the bondholders, not the shareholders. Whoever is in checks four things in every quarterly report (10-Q): do systemwide same-restaurant sales turn positive, or do guest counts keep falling? How does the remaining Class A-2 Notes balance develop (last $1.586 billion)? Does the continuing business stay profitable? And do the dividend or buybacks return — a signal that the coverage covenants leave room again? Until then this is a heavily indebted turnaround without an equity net, not a defensive consumer bet. The decision is yours.
What the thesis turns on
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
Jack in the Box is the familiarity trap in its purest form: a well-known everyday brand up front with a real, capital-light franchise cash flow — a highly leveraged financial construction out back, with about $1.6 billion of securitized debt and negative equity of $922 million that stems entirely from $3.2 billion of share buybacks. Revenue has fallen three years running, same-restaurant sales are negative, and the last big capital decision — the 2022 Del Taco acquisition — ended, after about $372 million of write-downs, in a sale for $115 million. On the plus side: the cleaned-up core business is profitable again, the dividend is cut, and the focus is on debt reduction. Whoever buys is betting on guests returning before the leveraged cash flow shrinks. Not investment advice.
Business model & brand
A well-known burger chain with 2,136 restaurants (93 percent franchised) and a capital-light royalty, rent and advertising cash flow of about $838 million (FY2025). In FY2023 the company still earned $130.8 million of net income — the brand earnings power is real.
Operating trend
Revenue down three years running (1.69 → 1.57 → 1.47 billion), same-restaurant sales negative (JITB company minus 3.7 percent FY2025, minus 2.8 percent Q2 FY2026) — driven by 4 to 6 percent fewer guests at higher prices. That is a managing regime, not a growth one.
Balance sheet & leverage
About $1.6 billion of securitized debt (Class A-2 Notes) with restrictive covenants and roughly $79 million of interest a year; negative equity of $922 million (04/12/2026). The deficit stems from $3.2 billion of buybacks (retained earnings plus $1.78 billion), but there is no equity cushion left.
Capital allocation
Del Taco (bought 2022) written down by about $372 million and sold on 12/22/2025 for $115 million (a further $47.4 million loss on the sale); at the same time $3.2 billion poured into often expensively bought own shares. Two net-loss years, dividend cut, buybacks nearly halted.
Turnaround approach
After exiting Del Taco, the continuing business is profitable again in the first half of FY2026 (net income plus $26.9 million); the cash-preservation plan (dividend stop, throttled new builds, location cleanup) targets debt reduction. Whether it works depends on guests returning — open.
Worth Noting
JACK reached our research list via the Reddit hype scanner (2 mentions in 24 hours, ApeWisdom, as of July 23, 2026) — unlike the momentum darlings of this series, Jack in the Box is an optically cheap, heavily indebted turnaround case, not a rally name.
Fiscal-year note: a 52/53-week year ending in late September (FY2025 ended 09/28/2025); the first quarter is 16 weeks, the others 12 each. Del Taco has been reported as discontinued operations since the sale on 12/22/2025 — revenue and earnings series are delineated accordingly.
Valuation figures are deliberately given as orders of magnitude and evergreen: metrics carry an annual, quarterly or data cut-off reference; daily prices are not a buy argument. Not to be confused: "JACK" (Jack in the Box) is not the Del Taco buyer Yadav Enterprises and is not the same as other QSR securitization issuers.
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of August 26, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at JACK since then.
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Price history
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
52-week range: 9.40 $ to 23.50 $ · Last price: 13.30 $ (As of: September 17, 2026)
Key figures
Key figures at a glance
Every figure we hold for this stock, grouped by topic. The question mark next to a label explains what the number means.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 09/18/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
This stock currently pays no dividend.
Quality & Screener
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Comparison
Industry comparison
The stock alongside the largest companies in the same group. The median row is the middle value of the companies shown above — not of the whole industry.
Industry: Restaurants
| Company | Market cap ($B) | P/E | EV/EBITDA | Gross Margin % | EBIT Margin % | Sales Growth (Year) % | Perf. 1Y % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack in the Box Inc. JACK | 0.3 | – | 254.7 | 26.7 | 13.5 | -6.8 | -29.3 |
| McDonald’s Corporation MCD | 176.6 | 21.4 | 15.4 | 57.4 | 44.3 | 3.7 | -16.4 |
| Starbucks Corporation SBUX | 110.2 | 75.7 | 24.8 | 22.3 | 8.4 | 2.8 | 19.1 |
| Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc CMG | 43.0 | 30.7 | 22.5 | 39.4 | 13.3 | 5.4 | -14.3 |
| Yum! Brands Inc YUM | 37.2 | 23.2 | 17.5 | 45.3 | 31.1 | 8.8 | -5.0 |
| Restaurant Brands International Inc. QSR | 33.2 | 23.9 | 14.5 | 34.1 | 25.9 | 12.2 | 19.0 |
| Darden Restaurants Inc DRI | 23.9 | 20.8 | 14.4 | 21.7 | 14.3 | 6.0 | 2.2 |
| Yum China Holdings Inc YUMC | 14.2 | 15.2 | 8.4 | 20.3 | 11.5 | 4.4 | -4.9 |
| Texas Roadhouse Inc TXRH | 11.0 | 28.0 | 18.1 | 16.3 | 9.0 | 9.4 | 3.2 |
| Median of companies shown | 33.2 | 23.6 | 17.5 | 26.7 | 13.5 | 5.4 | -4.9 |
Based on the most recently reported figures. Only stocks from the same trading venue are lined up, so the market caps are counted in one currency. Compare in a chart →
Fiscal years
Annual Figures
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Revenue, operating income and net income per fiscal year $M
Revenue Operating income Net income
| Fiscal Year | Revenue ($M) | EBIT ($M) | Net Income ($M) | EPS ($) | Operating Cash Flow ($M) | Equity ($M) | Total Assets ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1,162 | 191 | 124 | 3.63 | 134 | -217 | 1,345 |
| 2017 | 1,097 | 245 | 135 | 4.38 | 172 | -388 | 1,235 |
| 2018 | 870 | 233 | 121 | 4.21 | 109 | -592 | 823 |
| 2019 | 950 | 202 | 94 | 3.62 | 168 | -738 | 958 |
| 2020 | 1,022 | 231 | 90 | 3.86 | 144 | -793 | 1,906 |
| 2021 | 1,144 | 290 | 166 | 7.37 | 201 | -818 | 1,750 |
| 2022 | 1,468 | 248 | 116 | 5.45 | 163 | -736 | 2,923 |
| 2023 | 1,692 | 279 | 131 | 6.30 | 215 | -718 | 3,001 |
| 2024 | 1,571 | 83 | -37 | -1.85 | 69 | -852 | 2,736 |
| 2025 | 1,465 | -18 | -81 | -4.21 | 162 | -938 | 2,593 |
Quarters
Quarterly Figures
Each bar is one quarter, the last one is the most recent. Use the switch to step through the individual figures.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
Click the chart or tab into it, then use ← and → to step through the periods.
None of the selected stocks reports this metric. Pick another metric or switch between annual and quarterly.
· Total · per year
These companies report in different currencies — switch on “Indexed” or pick a margin for a fair comparison.
The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q2 | 1.65 | 13.80 | 369 | -7.00 | -33.10 | 45 | 21 |
| 2024: Q3 | 1.16 | 6.40 | 349 | -6.20 | 6.30 | 30 | 0 |
| 2024: Q4 | 1.92 | -1.50 | 469 | -3.70 | 7.20 | 106 | 71 |
| 2025: Q1 | 1.20 | -17.80 | 337 | -7.80 | -42.20 | -37 | -58 |
| 2025: Q2 | 1.02 | -38.20 | 333 | -9.80 | 6.60 | 60 | 37 |
| 2025: Q3 | 0.30 | -74.10 | 326 | -6.60 | 1.80 | 34 | 16 |
| 2025: Q4 | 1.00 | -47.90 | 350 | -25.50 | -0.70 | 19 | -5 |
| 2026: Q1 | 0.76 | -36.70 | 254 | -24.50 | 4.00 | -15 | -27 |
| 2026: Q2 | 0.53 | -48.00 | 254 | -23.60 | 4.00 | -14 | -25 |
What Do These Terms Mean?
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Screening
Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 10 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Growth
Quality & Balance Sheet
Breakout & Setup
Momentum & Trend
Research
Risk & Weakness
Only genuine hits from verified scanners count; pure ranking metrics (P/E, P/S, and similar, which just sort the whole universe) don't count as a hit. Scanners marked in red are red-flag signals (risk/short scanners) — appearing there is not a seal of approval. View all scanners
Outlook
Analysts & Price Target
Combined picture of the price targets and recommendations of every analyst covering the stock. Price targets are expectations for the next 12 months, not promises — and they often follow the price rather than predict it.
Distribution of Recommendations
Estimates by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | EPS Estimate ($) | EPS Range ($) | Revenue Estimate ($M) | Expected Growth | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09/30/2026 | 3.11 | 2.30 – 3.44 | 1,117 | -30.0% | 17 |
| 09/30/2027 | 3.20 | 2.24 – 3.69 | 1,126 | 2.9% | 16 |
Average of the analyst estimates for the coming fiscal years. The range shows how far the most optimistic and the most cautious estimate sit apart — the wider it is, the less certain the expectation.
Valuation
What is priced in?
Instead of guessing what the stock is worth, we turn the question around: what free cash flow growth has to happen for today’s market value to add up? The assumptions behind it can be moved.
Today’s market value implies roughly 8.7% growth in free cash flow per year over ten years (assumptions: discount rate 10.0%, terminal growth 2.5%).
| Free cash flow (last twelve months) | $12.2M |
|---|---|
| Market cap | $262.0M |
| Free cash flow in year ten | $28.0M |
| Terminal value as a share of market value | 56.4% |
For comparison: over the past five years free cash flow shrank by 9.8% per year.
It shows which assumption is built into today’s price, not whether that assumption will hold. Every assumption can be changed with the sliders; the figures move with them.
A simplified model calculation — not a forecast and not a recommendation.
AI classification
AI Rating
Kein wesentlicher KI-Bezug in den ausgewerteten SEC-Filings: Der Geschäftsbericht 10-K für das Geschäftsjahr 2025 und der Quartalsbericht 10-Q zum 12. April 2026 enthalten keine belastbaren Treffer zu „artificial intelligence“, „machine learning“, „generative“ oder „LLM“ — die einzigen Fundstellen sind „business intelligence systems“ (Betriebsdaten-Auswertung, keine KI) und „artificial … trans fats“ (Zutaten, keine KI). Als franchise-lastige Schnellrestaurantkette (QSR) ist Jack in the Box weder KI-Umsatzquelle noch nennt sie KI als konkretes Geschäftsrisiko fürs eigene Modell; dokumentierter Negativ-Befund.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
Filings Reviewed: 10-K 2025-11-19 · 10-K 2024-11-21 · 10-Q 2026-05-13 · 10-Q 2026-02-18
Rated on July 23, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Growth
Growth Score
Ten checks against the annual reports — each one passed counts a point.
- Revenue grows by more than 15% a year over three years -0.1%
- More than 10% revenue growth is expected for the coming year -23.2%
- Share count grows by less than 3% a year -3.4%
- Revenue growth plus cash-flow margin add up to at least 40 ("Rule of 40") -1.7%
- Gross margin at 40% or higher and without meaningful erosion 28.7%
- Goodwill from acquisitions does not grow faster than revenue 5.3%
- Net debt below twice EBITDA 84.9 x EBITDA
- Operating cash flow covers the profits of the last three years 433 m
- Return on capital at 15% or higher, or up versus two years ago -0.8%
- Insiders hold at least 10% or are net buyers 9.1%
A criterion without figures counts neither as passed nor as failed; a score is only produced from 7 judgeable criteria upwards. Source: fundamental data. All ten criteria in detail
Quality check
AAQS
1/10The AAQS (AlleAktien Quality Score) checks 10 quality criteria on growth, profitability, and balance-sheet strength — per the methodology developed and published by AlleAktien, calculated by us from our own fundamental data. A stock counts as a quality stock from 9 out of 10 points. Where a company has a shorter listing history, we calculate over the fiscal years available (at least five).
- Sales growth 10Y > 5% 2.6%
- Exp. sales growth 3Y > 5% -12.4%
- EBIT growth 10Y > 5% –
- Exp. EBIT growth 3Y > 5% -12.4%
- Net debt < 4x EBIT –
- EBIT positive, 10Y straight 9
- Max. EBIT decline < 50% 100.0%
- Return on equity > 15% –
- ROCE > 15% -0.8%
- Expected return > 10% 12.4%
View stocks with the full AAQS score · Read the methodology at AlleAktien
Source: fundamental data
Insiders
Insider Transactions
Reportable transactions by officers and major shareholders from SEC Form 4 filings. "Other" includes things like stock grants and option exercises without a buy/sell character.
| Date | Person | Role | Type | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | Myers James M | Director | Other | 1,494 | 0.00 | – |
| Aug 14, 2026 | King Mark James | Exec Chairman & Interim CEO | Sell | 5,647 | 18.59 | 104,977 |
| Jul 21, 2026 | King Mark James | Exec Chairman & Interim CEO | Sell | 5,626 | 14.70 | 82,702 |
The company
About the Company
Jack in the Box Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick-service restaurants (QSR) in the United States. It operates through Jack in the Box and Del Taco segments. The company engages in the operation of a hamburger chain under the Jack in the Box brand; and a Mexican-American QSR chain under the Del Taco brand. The company was formerly known as Foodmaker, Inc and changed its name to Jack in the Box Inc. in November 1999. Jack in the Box Inc. was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.
- Employees
- 1,316
- Headquarters
- San Diego, CA
- Address
- 9357 Spectrum Center Blvd., 92123 San Diego, United States
- Phone
- 858 571 2121
- Website
- jackinthebox.com
- IPO Date
- 02/24/1987
- ISIN
- US4663671091
- Stock Split
- 2:1 on 10/16/2007
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Dawn E. Hooper | Executive VP & CFO | 1971 |
| Sarah L. Super | Executive VP and Chief Legal & Administrative Officer | 1977 |
| Carl Mount | Advisor | 1964 |
| Mark James King | Interim CEO & Executive Chairman | 1960 |
| Shannon McKinney | Senior VP & COO | – |
| Richard D. Cook | Senior VP & CTO | 1973 |
| Rachel Webb | Senior Vice President of Finance, Investor Relations & Analytics | – |
| Katelyn Zborowski | Senior VP & Chief Marketing Officer | – |
| Steven Piano | Senior VP & Chief People Officer | 1966 |
| Van Ingram | Senior VP & Chief Development Officer | 1965 |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Filings
Company Filings (8-K)
An 8-K is the filing a US company must use to disclose material events immediately — takeovers, changes at the top, major contracts or payment troubles, for instance. The links open the original document at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- 08/20/2026 JACK IN THE BOX INC (JACK): Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers: Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers; Regulation FD Disclosure; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
- 08/12/2026 JACK IN THE BOX INC (JACK): Results of Operations and Financial Condition; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
- 07/07/2026 JACK IN THE BOX INC (JACK): Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers: Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers SEC ↗
Data as of: September 17, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.