Head to Head Contrast: Dine Brands Global (NYSE:DIN) and Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG)

Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) and Dine Brands Global (NYSE:DIN) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Sweetgreen and Dine Brands Global, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sweetgreen	1	2	5	0	2.50
Dine Brands Global	0	2	5	0	2.71

Sweetgreen presently has a consensus target price of $22.00, suggesting a potential downside of 5.38%. Dine Brands Global has a consensus target price of $59.43, suggesting a potential upside of 36.46%. Given Dine Brands Global’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Dine Brands Global is more favorable than Sweetgreen.

Profitability

This table compares Sweetgreen and Dine Brands Global’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sweetgreen	-19.41%	-21.58%	-12.36%
Dine Brands Global	11.69%	-37.72%	6.05%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

95.8% of Sweetgreen shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.8% of Dine Brands Global shares are owned by institutional investors. 21.5% of Sweetgreen shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of Dine Brands Global shares are owned by company 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 & Earnings

This table compares Sweetgreen and Dine Brands Global’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sweetgreen	$584.04 million	4.50	-$113.38 million	($1.00)	-23.25
Dine Brands Global	$831.07 million	0.81	$97.18 million	$6.23	6.99

Dine Brands Global has higher revenue and earnings than Sweetgreen. Sweetgreen is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Dine Brands Global, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Sweetgreen has a beta of 2.22, indicating that its stock price is 122% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dine Brands Global has a beta of 1.68, indicating that its stock price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Dine Brands Global beats Sweetgreen on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sweetgreen

Sweetgreen, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates fast food restaurants serving healthy foods at scale in the United States. The company also accepts orders through its online and mobile ordering platforms, as well as sells gift cards that do not have an expiration date and can be redeemed. The company was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

About Dine Brands Global

Dine Brands Global, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, owns, franchises, and operates restaurants in the United States and internationally. The company operates through six segments: Applebee's Franchise Operations, International House of Pancakes (IHOP) Franchise Solutions, Fuzzy's franchise operations, Rental Operations, Financing Operations, and Company-Operated Restaurant Operations. It owns and franchises three restaurant concepts, including Applebee's Neighborhood Grill + Bar within the casual dining category; and IHOP in the family dining category of the restaurant industry; Fuzzy's Taco Shop within the fast-casual dining category. In addition, its Applebee's restaurants offer American fare with drinks and local draft beers; IHOP restaurants provide full table services, food and beverage; and Fuzzy's Taco Shop offers baja-style mexican food like baja tacos, chips and queso, guacamole and salsa made in house, and a full bar including margaritas, and cold draft beer. The company was formerly known as DineEquity, Inc. and changed its name to Dine Brands Global, Inc. in February 2018. Dine Brands Global, Inc. was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Pasadena, California.