CAVA Group (NYSE:CAVA) vs. Portillo’s (NASDAQ:PTLO) Critical Analysis

Portillo’s (NASDAQ:PTLO) and CAVA Group (NYSE:CAVA) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Portillo’s and CAVA Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Portillo’s	2.71%	4.79%	1.57%
CAVA Group	1.82%	4.28%	1.50%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Portillo’s and CAVA Group’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Portillo’s	$679.91 million	1.14	$18.42 million	$0.31	34.23
CAVA Group	$728.70 million	11.61	$13.28 million	N/A	N/A

Portillo’s has higher earnings, but lower revenue than CAVA Group.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Portillo’s and CAVA Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Portillo’s	0	1	3	0	2.75
CAVA Group	0	4	10	0	2.71

Portillo’s presently has a consensus price target of $21.40, suggesting a potential upside of 101.70%. CAVA Group has a consensus price target of $60.42, suggesting a potential downside of 18.59%. Given Portillo’s’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Portillo’s is more favorable than CAVA Group.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

98.3% of Portillo’s shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.2% of CAVA Group shares are held by institutional investors. 6.6% of Portillo’s shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Portillo’s beats CAVA Group on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Portillo’s

Portillo's Inc. owns and operates fast casual restaurants in the United States. The company offers Chicago-style hot dogs and sausages, Italian beef sandwiches, char-grilled burgers, chopped salads, crinkle-cut French fries, homemade chocolate cakes, and chocolate cake shake. It offers its products through its website, application, and certain third-party platforms. Portillo's Inc. was founded in 1963 and is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.

About CAVA Group

CAVA Group, Inc. owns and operates a chain of restaurants under the CAVA brand in the United States. The company also offers dips, spreads, and dressings through grocery stores. In addition, the company provides online and mobile ordering platforms. Cava Group, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Washington, the District of Columbia.