El Pollo Loco vs Sweetgreen
LOCO and SG side by side, both in eating and drinking places. Figures are trailing twelve months unless noted, from SEC filings and end-of-day prices.
How LOCO and SG compare
Sweetgreen is the larger company, worth 2.8 times as much as El Pollo Loco ($1.3B against $466M).
On earnings, El Pollo Loco is cheaper: it trades at 13.1× trailing earnings, against 111× for Sweetgreen.
El Pollo Loco grew revenue faster over the last twelve months (4.4% versus −0.65% for Sweetgreen).
El Pollo Loco keeps more of each dollar of sales as profit, with a net margin of 7.0% compared with 2.0% at Sweetgreen.
El Pollo Loco scores higher on the StockData Score (14 against 8 for Sweetgreen), which adds up 30 checks on valuation, growth, past performance, financial health and dividends.
Key numbers
A dot marks the better figure where higher or lower is clearly better.
| Metric | LOCO | SG |
|---|---|---|
| Size and price | ||
| Market cap | $466M | $1.3B |
| Share price | $15.30 | $11.07 |
| Change, 1 year | 60.9% | 59.5% |
| Change, 5 years | −1.3% | – |
| Beta (5Y) | 0.67 | 1.71 |
| Employees | 4,034 | 6,486 |
| StockData Score | ||
| Total score | 14 (better) | 8 |
| Valuation score | 5 (better) | 1 |
| Growth score | 3 (better) | 1 |
| Performance score | 5 (better) | 2 |
| Health score | 1 | 4 (better) |
| Dividend score | 0 | 0 |
| Valuation | ||
| P/E | 13.1× (better) | 111× |
| P/S | 0.9× (better) | 1.9× |
| P/B | 1.5× (better) | 2.8× |
| EV/EBITDA | 6.5× | – |
| P/FCF | 11.4× | – |
| PEG | 0.80 | – |
| FCF yield | 8.8% (better) | −8.8% |
| Fair value | $22.54 | $4.65 |
| Margin of safety | 32.1% (better) | −138% |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth (TTM) | 4.4% (better) | −0.65% |
| Revenue growth, 5Y average | 2.8% | 25.2% (better) |
| Net income growth (TTM) | 41.0% | – |
| EPS growth (TTM) | 39.3% | – |
| EPS growth, 5Y average | 5.8% | – |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | – | 11.7% |
| Operating margin | 10.5% (better) | −21.4% |
| Net margin | 7.0% (better) | 2.0% |
| FCF margin | 8.2% (better) | −17.1% |
| Return on equity | 11.8% (better) | 3.1% |
| Return on invested capital | 13.1% (better) | −45.4% |
| Financial health | ||
| Debt / equity | – | 0.00 |
| Interest coverage | 14.9× (better) | −1404.9× |
| Current ratio | 0.41 | 1.43 (better) |
| Altman Z-score | 2.06 (better) | 0.71 |
| Piotroski F-score | 8 (better) | 3 |
| Dividends and buybacks | ||
| Buyback yield | −0.70% | – |
| Shareholder yield | −0.70% | 0.00% (better) |
| Ownership | ||
| Held by institutions | 97.7% | 80.7% |
| Held by insiders | 20.3% | 12.2% |
| Insider net buying, 12 months | −$9.6M | $4.1M (better) |
| Short interest, % of float | 7.6% | 23.8% |
Go deeper
- LOCO stock overview
- LOCO income statement
- LOCO valuation and score
- SG stock overview
- SG income statement
- SG valuation and score
For information only, not investment advice. Check the source filings before relying on any figure.