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El Pollo Loco (LOCO) Competitors

El Pollo Loco logo
$8.98 -0.03 (-0.28%)
As of 10:30 AM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more.

LOCO vs. FWRG, PTLO, KRUS, MSC, TH, BALY, PBPB, CVEO, GHG, and GENK

Should you be buying El Pollo Loco stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of El Pollo Loco include First Watch Restaurant Group (FWRG), Portillo's (PTLO), Kura Sushi USA (KRUS), Studio City International (MSC), Target Hospitality (TH), Bally's (BALY), Potbelly (PBPB), Civeo (CVEO), GreenTree Hospitality Group (GHG), and GEN Restaurant Group (GENK). These companies are all part of the "restaurants, hotels, motels" industry.

El Pollo Loco vs.

First Watch Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:FWRG) and El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) are both small-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, dividends, media sentiment, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and community ranking.

First Watch Restaurant Group presently has a consensus price target of $21.36, suggesting a potential upside of 34.28%. El Pollo Loco has a consensus price target of $15.50, suggesting a potential upside of 72.03%. Given El Pollo Loco's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe El Pollo Loco is more favorable than First Watch Restaurant Group.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
First Watch Restaurant Group
0 Sell rating(s)
1 Hold rating(s)
8 Buy rating(s)
1 Strong Buy rating(s)
3.00
El Pollo Loco
0 Sell rating(s)
2 Hold rating(s)
1 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.33

El Pollo Loco has a net margin of 5.11% compared to First Watch Restaurant Group's net margin of 2.09%. El Pollo Loco's return on equity of 10.34% beat First Watch Restaurant Group's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
First Watch Restaurant Group2.09% 3.61% 1.53%
El Pollo Loco 5.11%10.34%4.40%

In the previous week, First Watch Restaurant Group and First Watch Restaurant Group both had 2 articles in the media. First Watch Restaurant Group's average media sentiment score of 1.38 beat El Pollo Loco's score of 0.19 indicating that First Watch Restaurant Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
First Watch Restaurant Group
1 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
1 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
El Pollo Loco
0 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
1 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral

El Pollo Loco received 303 more outperform votes than First Watch Restaurant Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.46% of users gave First Watch Restaurant Group an outperform vote while only 59.25% of users gave El Pollo Loco an outperform vote.

CompanyUnderperformOutperform
First Watch Restaurant GroupOutperform Votes
59
61.46%
Underperform Votes
37
38.54%
El Pollo LocoOutperform Votes
362
59.25%
Underperform Votes
249
40.75%

96.1% of First Watch Restaurant Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.3% of El Pollo Loco shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.0% of First Watch Restaurant Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of El Pollo Loco shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

El Pollo Loco has lower revenue, but higher earnings than First Watch Restaurant Group. El Pollo Loco is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than First Watch Restaurant Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
First Watch Restaurant Group$1.06B0.92$25.39M$0.1793.59
El Pollo Loco$476.03M0.57$25.55M$0.8510.60

First Watch Restaurant Group has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, El Pollo Loco has a beta of 1.11, suggesting that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

First Watch Restaurant Group beats El Pollo Loco on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding {thisCompany.Symbol} and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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LOCO vs. The Competition

MetricEl Pollo LocoEating places IndustryRetail SectorNASDAQ Exchange
Market Cap$268.67M$9.02B$25.22B$8.39B
Dividend YieldN/A3.80%169.81%4.11%
P/E Ratio11.4127.2024.6019.71
Price / Sales0.571.873.97120.53
Price / Cash10.1919.1719.4134.62
Price / Book1.185.586.104.50
Net Income$25.55M$318.00M$784.05M$248.22M
7 Day Performance-4.96%-3.64%-1.01%0.56%
1 Month Performance-4.66%4.58%10.25%13.17%
1 Year Performance-14.84%-8.15%8.11%7.30%

El Pollo Loco Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
LOCO
El Pollo Loco
3.3823 of 5 stars
$8.99
-0.3%
$15.50
+72.5%
-14.8%$269.27M$476.03M11.344,630
FWRG
First Watch Restaurant Group
3.7812 of 5 stars
$16.75
+6.2%
$21.36
+27.5%
-17.4%$1.02B$1.06B50.7610,000Positive News
Gap Up
PTLO
Portillo's
2.0902 of 5 stars
$12.16
+8.2%
$13.71
+12.8%
+16.0%$907.17M$721.16M28.957,450Positive News
Insider Trade
KRUS
Kura Sushi USA
2.6101 of 5 stars
$66.82
+9.1%
$77.20
+15.5%
-34.7%$807.52M$258.44M-98.262,100Positive News
MSC
Studio City International
0.4525 of 5 stars
$3.35
-0.2%
N/A-64.0%$706.74M$639.15M-7.293,790Gap Up
TH
Target Hospitality
2.6162 of 5 stars
$6.95
+0.4%
$11.25
+61.9%
-33.4%$690.58M$386.27M7.99820Earnings Report
Analyst Revision
Gap Up
BALY
Bally's
3.3062 of 5 stars
$11.17
-0.7%
$17.13
+53.4%
-24.2%$541.61M$2.45B-0.7410,500Gap Down
PBPB
Potbelly
3.9939 of 5 stars
$10.12
+2.5%
$16.00
+58.1%
+16.3%$305.34M$462.60M8.105,500
CVEO
Civeo
3.7669 of 5 stars
$20.67
-1.2%
$27.00
+30.6%
-15.7%$278.07M$660.05M14.761,400Positive News
GHG
GreenTree Hospitality Group
N/A$2.08
+4.3%
$4.00
+92.8%
-34.8%$210.70M$1.34B3.842,890
GENK
GEN Restaurant Group
2.8664 of 5 stars
$5.15
+9.6%
$11.63
+125.7%
-70.8%$170.66M$208.38M30.292,500Positive News
Gap Up

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This page (NASDAQ:LOCO) was last updated on 5/23/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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