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Wendy's (WEN) Competitors

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$10.64 +0.29 (+2.80%)
Closing price 08/22/2025 04:00 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$10.62 -0.02 (-0.19%)
As of 08/22/2025 07:59 PM Eastern
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WEN vs. PZZA, ARCO, QSR, EAT, CAKE, CBRL, BJRI, BH, BLMN, and NATH

Should you be buying Wendy's stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Wendy's include Papa John's International (PZZA), Arcos Dorados (ARCO), Restaurant Brands International (QSR), Brinker International (EAT), Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBRL), BJ's Restaurants (BJRI), Biglari (BH), Bloomin' Brands (BLMN), and Nathan's Famous (NATH). These companies are all part of the "retail - restrnts" industry.

Wendy's vs. Its Competitors

Papa John's International (NASDAQ:PZZA) and Wendy's (NASDAQ:WEN) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership and dividends.

Papa John's International pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Wendy's pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Papa John's International pays out 81.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Wendy's pays out 58.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Papa John's International has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Wendy's is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Papa John's International currently has a consensus price target of $52.33, indicating a potential upside of 13.06%. Wendy's has a consensus price target of $13.76, indicating a potential upside of 29.35%. Given Wendy's' higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Wendy's is more favorable than Papa John's International.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Papa John's International
0 Sell rating(s)
6 Hold rating(s)
5 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.45
Wendy's
2 Sell rating(s)
12 Hold rating(s)
6 Buy rating(s)
3 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.43

86.0% of Wendy's shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Papa John's International shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.0% of Wendy's shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

In the previous week, Wendy's had 16 more articles in the media than Papa John's International. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for Wendy's and 13 mentions for Papa John's International. Papa John's International's average media sentiment score of 1.54 beat Wendy's' score of 0.18 indicating that Papa John's International is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Papa John's International
12 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
1 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Very Positive
Wendy's
8 Very Positive mention(s)
4 Positive mention(s)
11 Neutral mention(s)
6 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral

Papa John's International has a beta of 1.13, indicating that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wendy's has a beta of 0.31, indicating that its share price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Wendy's has higher revenue and earnings than Papa John's International. Wendy's is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Papa John's International, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Papa John's International$2.06B0.74$83.49M$2.2620.48
Wendy's$2.25B0.90$194.36M$0.9611.08

Wendy's has a net margin of 8.63% compared to Papa John's International's net margin of 3.58%. Wendy's' return on equity of 103.07% beat Papa John's International's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Papa John's International3.58% -14.42% 6.78%
Wendy's 8.63%103.07%3.94%

Summary

Wendy's beats Papa John's International on 13 of the 20 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 WEN 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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WEN vs. The Competition

MetricWendy'sRETAIL IndustryRetail SectorNASDAQ Exchange
Market Cap$2.03B$11.45B$27.44B$9.78B
Dividend Yield5.26%3.16%172.55%4.05%
P/E Ratio11.0834.1626.7626.05
Price / Sales0.902.0214.41123.03
Price / Cash5.9716.4559.8359.36
Price / Book18.034.984.826.60
Net Income$194.36M$405.16M$869.87M$265.65M
7 Day Performance0.66%0.14%1.97%2.01%
1 Month Performance-6.01%-9.18%-2.05%-0.33%
1 Year Performance-37.04%-2.56%16.23%19.04%

Wendy's Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
WEN
Wendy's
4.983 of 5 stars
$10.64
+2.8%
$13.76
+29.4%
-36.4%$2.03B$2.25B11.0814,500Trending News
PZZA
Papa John's International
3.9681 of 5 stars
$45.87
-3.6%
$52.33
+14.1%
+2.7%$1.50B$2.06B20.3011,400Positive News
ARCO
Arcos Dorados
3.4043 of 5 stars
$7.36
-0.1%
$8.80
+19.6%
-19.6%$1.55B$4.47B11.6898,615
QSR
Restaurant Brands International
4.793 of 5 stars
$65.86
+0.9%
$75.04
+13.9%
-11.3%$21.59B$8.41B24.9537,600Positive News
EAT
Brinker International
4.101 of 5 stars
$155.72
-1.5%
$171.41
+10.1%
+119.1%$6.92B$5.38B18.7468,852Positive News
CAKE
Cheesecake Factory
4.3827 of 5 stars
$61.94
-1.7%
$61.94
0.0%
+63.5%$3.09B$3.58B19.0647,900
CBRL
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store
3.698 of 5 stars
$60.72
-2.4%
$55.14
-9.2%
+33.1%$1.35B$3.47B23.5377,600Trending News
BJRI
BJ's Restaurants
3.5076 of 5 stars
$34.83
-0.8%
$39.67
+13.9%
+10.9%$770.58M$1.38B29.2721,000News Coverage
Insider Trade
BH
Biglari
1.4781 of 5 stars
$302.91
-3.2%
N/A+72.8%$690.63M$362.11M2.072,535
BLMN
Bloomin' Brands
3.883 of 5 stars
$7.20
+2.9%
$11.00
+52.8%
-59.1%$612.49M$3.93B-144.0081,000Ex-Dividend
NATH
Nathan's Famous
2.636 of 5 stars
$105.21
-0.1%
N/A+45.2%$430.31M$148.18M18.27130News Coverage
Positive News
Dividend Announcement

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This page (NASDAQ:WEN) was last updated on 8/23/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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