Contrasting GEN Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:GENK) and Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING)

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) and GEN Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:GENK) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends and profitability.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Wingstop and GEN Restaurant Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wingstop	$625.81 million	10.98	$108.72 million	$6.14	40.28
GEN Restaurant Group	$208.38 million	0.37	$590,000.00	($0.26)	-9.04

Wingstop has higher revenue and earnings than GEN Restaurant Group. GEN Restaurant Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Wingstop, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Wingstop and GEN Restaurant Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wingstop	25.51%	-16.17%	15.81%
GEN Restaurant Group	-0.61%	0.51%	0.09%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

10.2% of GEN Restaurant Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Wingstop shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 59.1% of GEN Restaurant Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Wingstop and GEN Restaurant Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wingstop	1	5	22	5	2.94
GEN Restaurant Group	1	0	1	0	2.00

Wingstop currently has a consensus target price of $337.81, indicating a potential upside of 36.60%. GEN Restaurant Group has a consensus target price of $8.00, indicating a potential upside of 240.43%. Given GEN Restaurant Group’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe GEN Restaurant Group is more favorable than Wingstop.

Volatility & Risk

Wingstop has a beta of 1.75, suggesting that its share price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GEN Restaurant Group has a beta of 1.43, suggesting that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Wingstop beats GEN Restaurant Group on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wingstop

Wingstop Inc., together with its subsidiaries, franchises and operates restaurants under the Wingstop brand. Its restaurants offer classic wings, boneless wings, tenders, and hand-sauced-and-tossed in various flavors, as well as chicken sandwiches with fries and hand-cut carrots and celery that are cooked-to-order. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Addison, Texas.

About GEN Restaurant Group

GEN Restaurant Group, Inc. operates restaurants in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Texas, New York, and Florida. It offers meats, poultry, and seafood. The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Cerritos, California.