Dutch Bros (BROS) stock lost 47% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 gained 5.6% (as of September 25, 2026). The shares still cost 55.2 times the coffee chain’s yearly profit, against 22.1 times for the S&P 500. The question now is how much lower Dutch Bros stock could go if the whole market falls too.
Can Dutch Bros Keep Sales Growing At Existing Shops?
Dutch Bros still can, but management expects the pace to slow. System same-shop sales, which measure sales at established shops, rose 5.8% in fiscal Q2 2026. Management guided fiscal Q3 to about 4% to 5%. For all of 2026, it now expects 5% to 6%.
Management pointed mainly to tougher comparisons with last year’s customer orders. Fading price increases and the first anniversary of the food program also play a part. Worries over near-term same-shop sales and longer-term competition from other drive-through concepts have weighed disproportionately on the stock’s valuation, Bank of America said in a note this month.
Customer orders still grew in fiscal Q2, for the eighth quarter in a row. Management expects pricing to add less than one point to the average order in the second half. So more of the growth now has to come from more orders. Whether slower sales hurt depends partly on how much more profitable the business has become.
Dutch Bros Keeps More Of Each Sales Dollar Now
Dutch Bros has kept more of each sales dollar as profit in each of the past three years. Its operating margin, the share of revenue left after running costs, was 4.8% in fiscal 2023. It is 9.6% over the last twelve months. Gross margin, what is left after the direct costs of each sale, slipped over the past year to 25% from 27%.
Company-operated shops, which Dutch Bros runs itself, bring in most of its revenue. So a drop in customer spending would land mostly on shops whose costs the company carries. Management also raised its 2026 capital spending guide, adding to its own spending.
Its debt equals 17% of its stock market value, below the 21% for the S&P 500. A sturdier business still has to be set against how the stock behaved when the whole market fell.
Is Dutch Bros Stock Riskier Than The S&P 500?
In past market shocks, Dutch Bros stock fell about 2.7 times as far as the S&P 500. Across four shocks since 2022, its average fall was 33%, against 12.1% for the index. The deepest of those four was the 2022 inflation shock. The stock fell 52% then, while the S&P 500 fell about 25%.
The stock’s calendar-year record holds a deeper fall. In 2022, the shares fell as much as 60% from their high.
