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CHUY vs. WEN: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Retail - Restaurants sector have probably already heard of Chuy's Holdings and Wendy's (WEN - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks offers value investors a better bang for their buck right now? We'll need to take a closer look.

The best way to find great value stocks is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Currently, Chuy's Holdings has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Wendy's has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that CHUY has an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

Value investors analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

Our Value category highlights undervalued companies by looking at a variety of key metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, as well as the P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that have been used by value investors for years.

CHUY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 27.99, while WEN has a forward P/E of 34.89. We also note that CHUY has a PEG ratio of 1.60. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. WEN currently has a PEG ratio of 2.85.

Another notable valuation metric for CHUY is its P/B ratio of 2.32. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, WEN has a P/B of 7.31.

Based on these metrics and many more, CHUY holds a Value grade of B, while WEN has a Value grade of C.

CHUY has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than WEN, so it seems like value investors will conclude that CHUY is the superior option right now.


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