Fast food chain El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) will be reporting earnings tomorrow after the bell. Here's what to look for.

Last quarter El Pollo Loco reported revenues of $120.4 million, flat year on year, missing analyst expectations by 0.4%. It was a strong quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts' gross margin estimates and a narrow beat of analysts' earnings estimates.

Is El Pollo Loco buy or sell heading into the earnings? Read our full analysis here, it's free.

This quarter analysts are expecting El Pollo Loco's revenue to decline 5.9% year on year to $109.1 million, a deceleration on the 6.4% year-over-year increase in revenue the company had recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.16 per share.

Majority of analysts covering the company have reconfirmed their estimates over the last thirty days, suggesting they are expecting the business to stay the course heading into the earnings. The company missed Wall St's revenue estimates three times over the last two years.

Looking at El Pollo Loco's peers in the traditional fast food segment, some of them have already reported Q4 earnings results, giving us a hint of what we can expect. Yum China delivered top-line growth of 19.4% year on year, beating analyst estimates by 7% and Portillo's reported revenues up 24.5% year on year, exceeding estimates by 2%. Yum China traded up 11.7% on the results, and Portillo's was up 9%.

Read our full analysis of Yum China's results here and Portillo's's results here.

There has been positive sentiment among investors in the traditional fast food segment, with the stocks up on average 5.2% over the last month. El Pollo Loco is down 1.5% during the same time, and is heading into the earnings with analyst price target of $10.5, compared to share price of $8.98.

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