Reviewing Portillo’s (NASDAQ:PTLO) & CAVA Group (NYSE:CAVA)

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

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

Profitability

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

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

Earnings and Valuation

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

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

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for CAVA Group and Portillo’s, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

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

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

Summary

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

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.

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.