First Watch Restaurant Group (FWRG) & Its Rivals Critical Analysis

First Watch Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:FWRG) is one of 382 publicly-traded companies in the “Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare First Watch Restaurant Group to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.1% of First Watch Restaurant Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.7% of shares of all “Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure” companies are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of First Watch Restaurant Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 22.3% of shares of all “Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares First Watch Restaurant Group and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Watch Restaurant Group	1.45%	3.10%	1.09%
First Watch Restaurant Group Competitors	3.93%	-40.66%	2.07%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares First Watch Restaurant Group and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
First Watch Restaurant Group	$1.22 billion	$19.43 million	40.19
First Watch Restaurant Group Competitors	$3.43 billion	$250.20 million	-155.27

First Watch Restaurant Group’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than First Watch Restaurant Group. First Watch Restaurant Group is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

First Watch Restaurant Group has a beta of 1, indicating that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, First Watch Restaurant Group’s competitors have a beta of 1.44, indicating that their average stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for First Watch Restaurant Group and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First Watch Restaurant Group	0	2	8	2	3.00
First Watch Restaurant Group Competitors	3807	17285	25595	906	2.50

First Watch Restaurant Group presently has a consensus price target of $18.00, indicating a potential upside of 39.97%. As a group, “Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure” companies have a potential upside of 58.67%. Given First Watch Restaurant Group’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe First Watch Restaurant Group has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Summary

First Watch Restaurant Group competitors beat First Watch Restaurant Group on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

About First Watch Restaurant Group

First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates and franchises restaurants under the First Watch trade name in the United States. The company was formerly known as AI Fresh Super Holdco, Inc. and changed its name to First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc. in December 2019. First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Bradenton, Florida.