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

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for CAVA Group and Portillo’s, as provided 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	2	3	0	2.60

CAVA Group presently has a consensus target price of $60.42, indicating a potential downside of 19.86%. Portillo’s has a consensus target price of $18.17, indicating a potential upside of 80.76%. Given Portillo’s’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Portillo’s is more favorable than CAVA Group.

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%

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CAVA Group	$728.70 million	11.80	$13.28 million	N/A	N/A
Portillo’s	$679.91 million	1.08	$18.42 million	$0.31	32.42

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

73.2% of CAVA Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.3% of Portillo’s shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.6% of Portillo’s shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Portillo’s beats CAVA Group on 7 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.