Potbelly (NASDAQ:PBPB) and GEN Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:GENK) Financial Comparison

GEN Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:GENK) and Potbelly (NASDAQ:PBPB) are both small-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

10.2% of GEN Restaurant Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.6% of Potbelly shares are held by institutional investors. 59.1% of GEN Restaurant Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 10.2% of Potbelly shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

GEN Restaurant Group has a beta of 1.24, suggesting that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Potbelly has a beta of 1.68, suggesting that its share price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GEN Restaurant Group	0	0	2	0	3.00
Potbelly	0	1	2	0	2.67

GEN Restaurant Group presently has a consensus price target of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 135.85%. Potbelly has a consensus price target of $16.00, indicating a potential upside of 46.79%. Given GEN Restaurant Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe GEN Restaurant Group is more favorable than Potbelly.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GEN Restaurant Group	0.39%	1.83%	0.37%
Potbelly	8.14%	18.69%	2.41%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares GEN Restaurant Group and Potbelly”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
GEN Restaurant Group	$214.96 million	0.65	$8.41 million	($0.03)	-141.33
Potbelly	$465.13 million	0.71	$5.12 million	$1.40	7.79

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

Summary

Potbelly beats GEN Restaurant Group on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Potbelly

Potbelly Corporation, through its subsidiaries, owns, operates, and franchises Potbelly sandwich shops in the United States. The company was formerly known as Potbelly Sandwich Works, Inc. and changed its name to Potbelly Corporation in 2002. Potbelly Corporation was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.