As previously reported, Longbow upgraded Wendy's to Buy from Neutral with a $18 price target. Analyst Alton Stump's checks with US franchisees indicate Q3 domestic franchised comps are up in a 3.0-3.5% range to date, above his prior estimate of 2.5%, as well as consensus at up 2.4%. The analyst is confident Wendy's will beat Q3 same-store sales growth estimates and expects the same in Q4. Further, Wendy's could generate over $300M of cumulative free cash flow in the 2017-2019 time frame taht could be sued to purchase as much as 15% of shares by the end of 2019, the analyst wrote in a note to investors.