El Pollo Loco vs Wingstop
LOCO and WING 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 WING compare
Wingstop is the larger company, worth 8.8 times as much as El Pollo Loco ($4.1B against $466M).
On earnings, El Pollo Loco is cheaper: it trades at 13.1× trailing earnings, against 35.6× for Wingstop.
Wingstop grew revenue faster over the last twelve months (7.6% versus 4.4% for El Pollo Loco).
Wingstop keeps more of each dollar of sales as profit, with a net margin of 16.2% compared with 7.0% at El Pollo Loco.
Wingstop pays a dividend yielding 0.82%; El Pollo Loco does not pay one.
Wingstop scores higher on the StockData Score (16 against 14 for El Pollo Loco), 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 | WING |
|---|---|---|
| Size and price | ||
| Market cap | $466M | $4.1B |
| Share price | $15.30 | $149.73 |
| Change, 1 year | 60.9% | −38.3% |
| Change, 5 years | −1.3% | −10.2% |
| Beta (5Y) | 0.67 | 1.41 |
| Employees | 4,034 | 1,367 |
| StockData Score | ||
| Total score | 14 | 16 (better) |
| Valuation score | 5 (better) | 4 |
| Growth score | 3 | 5 (better) |
| Performance score | 5 (better) | 3 |
| Health score | 1 | 1 |
| Dividend score | 0 | 3 (better) |
| Valuation | ||
| P/E | 13.1× (better) | 35.6× |
| P/S | 0.9× (better) | 5.7× |
| P/B | 1.5× | – |
| EV/EBITDA | 6.5× (better) | 22.7× |
| P/FCF | 11.4× (better) | 31.7× |
| PEG | 0.80 | 0.68 (better) |
| FCF yield | 8.8% (better) | 3.2% |
| Fair value | $22.54 | $199.40 |
| Margin of safety | 32.1% (better) | 24.9% |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth (TTM) | 4.4% | 7.6% (better) |
| Revenue growth, 5Y average | 2.8% | 22.9% (better) |
| Net income growth (TTM) | 41.0% (better) | −32.1% |
| EPS growth (TTM) | 39.3% (better) | −29.8% |
| EPS growth, 5Y average | 5.8% | 51.4% (better) |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | – | 86.3% |
| Operating margin | 10.5% | 27.9% (better) |
| Net margin | 7.0% | 16.2% (better) |
| FCF margin | 8.2% | 17.8% (better) |
| Return on equity | 11.8% | – |
| Return on invested capital | 13.1% | 50.3% (better) |
| Financial health | ||
| Net debt / EBITDA | – | 4.76 |
| Interest coverage | 14.9× | – |
| Current ratio | 0.41 | 2.97 (better) |
| Altman Z-score | 2.06 | 2.41 (better) |
| Piotroski F-score | 8 (better) | 5 |
| Dividends and buybacks | ||
| Dividend yield | – | 0.82% |
| Payout ratio | – | 28.7% |
| Years of dividend growth | – | 4 |
| Dividend growth, 5Y average | – | −27.0% |
| Buyback yield | −0.70% | 4.4% (better) |
| Shareholder yield | −0.70% | 5.2% (better) |
| Ownership | ||
| Held by institutions | 97.7% | 124% |
| Held by insiders | 20.3% | 0.73% |
| Insider net buying, 12 months | −$9.6M | −$986K (better) |
| Short interest, % of float | 7.6% | 18.6% |
Go deeper
- LOCO stock overview
- LOCO income statement
- LOCO valuation and score
- WING stock overview
- WING income statement
- WING valuation and score
For information only, not investment advice. Check the source filings before relying on any figure.