Wendy's (WEN) Competitors

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

Which has higher valuation and earnings, PZZA or WEN?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Papa John's International	$2.06B	0.77	$83.49M	$2.26	21.53
Wendy's	$2.25B	0.81	$194.36M	$0.96	9.96

Is PZZA or WEN more profitable?

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 International	3.58%	-14.42%	6.78%
Wendy's	8.63%	103.07%	3.94%

Do analysts prefer PZZA or WEN?

Papa John's International currently has a consensus target price of $52.33, indicating a potential upside of 7.55%. Wendy's has a consensus target price of $12.97, indicating a potential upside of 35.69%. Given Wendy's' higher probable upside, analysts clearly 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)	5 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Which has more volatility and risk, PZZA or WEN?

Papa John's International has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wendy's has a beta of 0.37, indicating that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer PZZA or WEN?

In the previous week, Wendy's had 12 more articles in the media than Papa John's International. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for Wendy's and 12 mentions for Papa John's International. Papa John's International's average media sentiment score of 0.75 beat Wendy's' score of 0.58 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	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Wendy's	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders & institutionals believe in PZZA or WEN?

86.0% of Wendy's shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Papa John's International shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 17.0% of Wendy's shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is PZZA or WEN a better dividend stock?

Papa John's International pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Wendy's pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.9%. 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 raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Wendy's is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Wendy's beats Papa John's International on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.