Head-To-Head Comparison: Papa John’s International (NASDAQ:PZZA) & CAVA Group (NYSE:CAVA)

Papa John’s International (NASDAQ:PZZA) and CAVA Group (NYSE:CAVA) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Papa John’s International and CAVA Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Papa John’s International	3	6	0	0	1.67
CAVA Group	0	10	17	1	2.68

Papa John’s International presently has a consensus price target of $32.00, indicating a potential upside of 62.68%. CAVA Group has a consensus price target of $88.88, indicating a potential upside of 69.56%. Given CAVA Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CAVA Group is more favorable than Papa John’s International.

Profitability

This table compares Papa John’s International and CAVA Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Papa John’s International	1.34%	-10.98%	5.68%
CAVA Group	4.82%	8.28%	4.73%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

73.2% of CAVA Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Papa John’s International shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 6.7% of CAVA Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Papa John’s International and CAVA Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Papa John’s International	$2.05 billion	0.32	$30.53 million	$0.79	24.90
CAVA Group	$1.18 billion	5.19	$63.74 million	$0.55	95.31

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

Risk and Volatility

Papa John’s International has a beta of 1.13, suggesting that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CAVA Group has a beta of 1.8, suggesting that its stock price is 80% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

CAVA Group beats Papa John’s International on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Papa John’s International

Papa John’s International, Inc. engages in the operation and franchise of pizza delivery and carryout restaurants. It operates through the following segments: Domestic Company-owned Restaurants, North America Franchising, North America Commissaries, International Operations, and All Others. The Domestic Company-Owned Restaurants segment consists of retail sales of pizza and side items, breadsticks, cheese sticks, chicken poppers and wings, dessert items, and canned and bottled beverages. The North America Franchising segment involves the offering of sales and support activities, development rights, and collection of royalties from franchisees located in the United States and Canada. The North America Commissaries segment includes the eleven full-service regional dough production and distribution and quality control centers. The International Operations segment represents all restaurant operations outside of the United States and Canada. The All Others segment focuses on franchise contributions to marketing funds and sale, company-owned and franchised restaurants, information systems and related services used in restaurant operations, point-of-sale system, online and other technology-based ordering platforms, printing, and promotional items. The company was founded by John H. Schnatter in 1984 and is headquartered in Louisville, KY.

About CAVA Group

CAVA Group, Inc. owns and operates a chain of restaurants under the CAVA brand in the United States. The company also offers dips, spreads, and dressings through grocery stores. In addition, the company provides online and mobile ordering platforms. Cava Group, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Washington, the District of Columbia.