El Pollo Loco (LOCO) Competitors

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.

Do analysts rate FWRG or LOCO?

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

Is FWRG or LOCO more profitable?

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 Group	2.09%	3.61%	1.53%
El Pollo Loco	5.11%	10.34%	4.40%

Does the media refer more to FWRG or LOCO?

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

Does the MarketBeat Community favor FWRG or LOCO?

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.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
First Watch Restaurant Group	Outperform Votes 59 61.46%	Underperform Votes 37 38.54%
El Pollo Loco	Outperform Votes 362 59.25%	Underperform Votes 249 40.75%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of FWRG or LOCO?

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.

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, FWRG or LOCO?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
First Watch Restaurant Group	$1.06B	0.92	$25.39M	$0.17	93.59
El Pollo Loco	$476.03M	0.57	$25.55M	$0.85	10.60

Which has more risk & volatility, FWRG or LOCO?

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.