First Watch Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:FWRG – Get Free Report) and Happy City (NASDAQ:HCHL – Get Free Report) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, dividends and analyst recommendations.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for First Watch Restaurant Group and Happy City, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| First Watch Restaurant Group | 1 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 2.82 |
| Happy City | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 |
First Watch Restaurant Group currently has a consensus target price of $18.56, indicating a potential upside of 45.88%. Given First Watch Restaurant Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe First Watch Restaurant Group is more favorable than Happy City.
Volatility and Risk
Profitability
This table compares First Watch Restaurant Group and Happy City’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| First Watch Restaurant Group | 1.35% | 2.85% | 1.01% |
| Happy City | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares First Watch Restaurant Group and Happy City”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| First Watch Restaurant Group | $1.22 billion | 0.64 | $19.43 million | $0.29 | 43.86 |
| Happy City | $6.80 million | 17.34 | -$2.43 million | N/A | N/A |
First Watch Restaurant Group has higher revenue and earnings than Happy City.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
96.1% of First Watch Restaurant Group shares are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of First Watch Restaurant Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
First Watch Restaurant Group beats Happy City on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
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.
About Happy City
Headquartered in Hong Kong, we are a restaurant operator that operates three all-you-can-eat hotpot restaurant through our wholly-owned Operating Subsidiaries in Hong Kong. We have been in the restaurant services industry serving the Hong Kong market for over 5 years, which is a relatively short operating history compared to some of our established competitors. Our restaurants serves all-you-can-eat Thai and Japanese hotpot to our customers under the brand names “Thai Pot” and “Gyu! Gyu! Shabu Shabu”. As of the date of this prospectus, we operate three restaurants located in Tsuen Wan District in the New Territories, Mong Kok District in Kowloon, and Kwun Tong District in Kowloon. For the years ended August 31, 2024 and 2023, our revenue is generated from providing food and beverage to customers in our restaurants located in North Point, Mong Kok and Tsuen Wan. Our revenue increased by US$1,540,734 or 22.8%, from US$6,754,350 for the year ended August 31, 2023 to US$8,295,084 for the year ended August 31, 2024. Such increase was mainly attributable to the increase in customer demand as a result of the lifting of pandemic measures, in particular, the dine-in restrictions in catering business premises and other social distancing measures imposed by the Hong Kong government, which brought our restaurants back to normal business operation for the year ended August 31, 2024 and the upward adjustment in our selling price of our food in August 2023. We have two principal executive offices, one in Hong Kong and one in Singapore.
Receive News & Ratings for First Watch Restaurant Group Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for First Watch Restaurant Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
