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In the past Cramer's called weakness in this stock a buying opportunity. But lately AFCE has been anything but weak.
"This is a stock that's working," Cramer said. And considering the market environment the Mad Money host finds the gains extremely impressive.
AFC Enterprises, the company behind Popeyes, has several catalysts that have captured Cramer's attention.
First the company is remodeling.
"Last year, AFC Enterprises decided that its Popeyes stores needed a facelift," Cramer explained. By the end of the year the company will have remodeled 60% of its domestic locations, transforming them into Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, an homage to the company's origins.
"These remodeled restaurants are seeing sales volumes that are four percentage points higher than the system average, a very nice bump," Cramer said.
In addition, Cramer likes the growth potential.
"The essence of great restaurant investing is finding the stock of a restaurant that can fill in whole parts of the country. This company has a lot of runway," Cramer said.
"We can double our footprint," added CEO Cheryl Bachelder in an exclusive interview with Cramer. "We're just at the beginning of exploiting that growth. And we're building more and more restaurants every day."
All told, the Mad Money is optimistic. And he thinks recent results confirm the outlook.
Earlier this week, AFC Enterprises reported second-quarter net income $8.5 million or $0.35 per share, compared to $6.6 million or $0.27 per share in the same period last year.
On an adjusted basis, earnings were $0.75 per share, up 21% from $0.62 per share in the prior year.
On average, four analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.31 per share for the quarter.
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"Those are strong results," said Cramer.
Also, "Our same store sales are up," added Bachelder.
Despite the sharp gains, Cramer thinks this stock has a lot more room to run. Although he never advocates chasing a stock, "Most restaurant stocks are played out," he said, "but this one appears to have a lot of runway ahead."
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