NEW YORK – With the dog days of summer now a distant memory, U.S. quick-service restaurants are hoping to put sluggish summer sales behind them, Nation’s Restaurant News reports. An analyst forecast brighter days ahead for all fast-food restaurants, pointing to slight increases in August (1 percent) and September (2 percent) sales.

Larry Miller of RBC Capital Markets Corp. sees the upswing continuing into this month. Shoring up his prediction is a late August poll showing a year-over-year jump in consumer plans to eat more at fast-food restaurants. This indication is the first in more than five quarters.

McDonald’s was one of the few fast-food restaurants that posted positive numbers in same-store sales this summer. A rosier outlook for these restaurants will probably help “weaker players,” such as Jack in the Box and Sonic, Miller said. “At minimum, the easy comparisons allow more time for U.S. employment to pick up, which would boost fast-food sales trends further,” he wrote.

Jack in the Box saw its fourth-quarter same-store sales just a little bit up from its projection of a 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent drop. Meanwhile, Sonic’s fourth-quarter same-store sales decreased 6.4 percent. Both Jack in the Box and Sonic have seen signs that sales are slowly improving.