Analyzing Toast (NYSE:TOST) & Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:CEV)

Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:CEV) and Toast (NYSE:TOST) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

35.9% of Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.9% of Toast shares are held by institutional investors. 10.0% of Toast shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Toast has a beta of 1.72, indicating that its stock price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust and Toast’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A
Toast	7.14%	23.90%	15.77%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust and Toast”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust	$7.66 million	9.89	N/A	N/A	N/A
Toast	$6.15 billion	3.05	$342.00 million	$0.78	46.81

Toast has higher revenue and earnings than Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust and Toast, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust	0	0	0	0	0.00
Toast	0	9	17	0	2.65

Toast has a consensus target price of $39.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.82%. Given Toast’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Toast is more favorable than Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust.

Summary

Toast beats Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust

Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust is a close ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Eaton Vance Management. It invests in the fixed income markets. The fund invests primarily in debt securities issued by education, hospital, housing, insured-education, insured-electric utilities, insured-hospital, insured-transportation, insured-water and sewer, transportation, and other sectors. Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust was formed in 1999 and is domiciled in United States.

About Toast

Toast, Inc. operates a cloud-based digital technology platform for the restaurant industry in the United States, Ireland, and India. The company offers software products for restaurant operations and point of sale, such as Toast POS, Toast now, multi-location management, kitchen display system, Toast mobile order and pay, Toast catering and events, Toast invoicing, Toast tables, and restaurant retail; and hardware products, including Toast flex, Toast flex for guest, Toast go 2, Toast tap, kiosks, and Delphi by Toast. It provides toast online ordering and toast takeout, first-party delivery toast delivery services, and third-party delivery integrations and orders hub; and loyalty, email marketing, and toast gift cards. In addition, the company offers payroll and team management, Sling by Toast, Toast pay card and payout, and tips manager, as well as partner-enabled products comprising insurance and benefits; supply chain and accounting products, such as xtraCHEF by toast; and financial technology solutions consisting of payment processing, toast capital, and purchase plans. Further, it offers reporting and analytics, Toast shop, and Toast partner connect and application programming interfaces. The company was formerly known as Opti Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Toast, Inc. in May 2012. Toast, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.