One of Sonic's prime competitors, BJ's Restaurants Inc. ( BJRI ) reported third-quarter 2011 adjusted earnings of 24 cents per share, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate and higher than the prior-year earnings of 20 cents. BJ'S RESTAURANT ( BJRI ): Free Stock Analysis Report SONIC CORP ( SONC ): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Restaurant-level margins are expected to be slightly adverse attributed to cost inflation, particularly in the first half of the fiscal year and investment in improving the quality of product, partially offset by labor efficiencies.