Steak 'n Shake has found a new constituency in the Make America Great Again and Make America Healthy Again movements. For investors, the harder question is whether that enthusiasm makes its parent, Biglari Holdings, a better stock.
Biglari's Class B shares, which come with no voting rights, closed Friday at $376.97. The stock has gained 13.4% this year and is up 102% over the past three years.
The burger chain has spent the past year leaning into changes that resonate with the political right: cooking fries in beef tallow, switching to grass-fed beef and cane-sugar Coca-Cola, flying oversized American flags, and accepting Bitcoin.
In his latest annual shareholder letter, Biglari Chairman and CEO Sardar Biglari frames the ingredient changes primarily as a return to food quality. But the political appeal is hard to miss.
The strategy has won praise from figures including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk. Steak 'n Shake also hired Michael Boes, a former senior adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services, as its first "chief MAHA officer."
The positioning is getting attention. More importantly, sales are improving. Biglari said Steak 'n Shake's domestic same-store sales rose 11.9% in the second quarter, while pretax earnings rose 31% from a year earlier to $8.5 million.
In 2025, same-store sales rose 10.2%, their best annual performance since Biglari took control in 2008, excluding the postpandemic rebound.
But there is one wrinkle: despite strong comparable sales, Steak 'n Shake's footprint has been shrinking for years. The chain had 399 domestic locations at June 30, down from 417 a year earlier and roughly 17% fewer than at the same point in 2023.
Still, net revenue-which includes fees from franchise partners-rose 4.1% in the second quarter compared with a year ago. The numbers point to an uneven recovery: strong sales growth at existing restaurants is masking the continued disappearance of weaker locations.
Steak 'n Shake isn't publicly traded. To own a share of the business, investors have to buy Biglari Holdings, and that is a very different proposition.
The company is a conglomerate controlled by Sardar Biglari, 48, who has led it since 2008. Besides Steak 'n Shake, Biglari owns another restaurant chain, Western Sizzlin, insurance operations, oil-and-gas interests, and Maxim, a men's lifestyle magazine.
Biglari controls 73.1% of the voting power of its Class A shares, and the company says all major investment and capital-allocation decisions are made by him. Investors should be wary of that concentration-the company itself identifies its dependence on Biglari as a risk.
Biglari's capital allocation also deserves scrutiny. In September 2025, Steak 'n Shake borrowed $225 million at a fixed 8.8% rate, secured by its real estate, then distributed the proceeds to its parent. About $220 million remained on Steak 'n Shake's balance sheet at the end of June-nearly 10 times the chain's 2025 pretax operating earnings.
To be sure, parent company Biglari has substantial liquidity on its balance sheet. At midyear, the company held about $68 million in cash and cash equivalents and another $274 million in largely liquid investments, for roughly $343 million combined-well above Steak 'n Shake's debt.
Still, the borrowing has sharply increased interest expense, and nearly $197 million of principal comes due in 2030. Already, Biglari's interest expense on borrowings jumped to $11.2 million in the first six months of 2026, from just $1.8 million a year earlier, largely reflecting the new Steak 'n Shake financing.
Steak 'n Shake's MAGA makeover may look appealing. But before buying into the story, investors should understand what else comes in the combo: high-interest debt, a shrinking store footprint, and Sardar Biglari's sprawling collection of businesses and investments-along with little say over how the company is run.