Critical Survey: Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) vs. J d Wetherspoon (OTCMKTS:JDWPY)

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) and J d Wetherspoon (OTCMKTS:JDWPY) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Wingstop and J d Wetherspoon”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wingstop	$709.48 million	5.46	$174.27 million	$4.02	35.38
J d Wetherspoon	$2.76 billion	0.36	$88.36 million	N/A	N/A

Wingstop has higher earnings, but lower revenue than J d Wetherspoon.

Profitability

This table compares Wingstop and J d Wetherspoon’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wingstop	15.77%	-16.22%	17.12%
J d Wetherspoon	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Wingstop pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. J d Wetherspoon pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Wingstop pays out 29.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Wingstop has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years.

Risk & Volatility

Wingstop has a beta of 1.82, indicating that its share price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, J d Wetherspoon has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Wingstop and J d Wetherspoon, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wingstop	1	5	25	2	2.85
J d Wetherspoon	1	0	0	0	1.00

Wingstop currently has a consensus target price of $276.61, indicating a potential upside of 94.48%. Given Wingstop’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Wingstop is more favorable than J d Wetherspoon.

Summary

Wingstop beats J d Wetherspoon on 10 of the 14 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 J d Wetherspoon

J D Wetherspoon plc owns and operates pubs and hotels in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The company was founded in 1979 and is based in Watford, the United Kingdom.