Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) vs. Dine Brands Global (NYSE:DIN) Head to Head Survey

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

Analyst Ratings

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

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

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

Volatility and Risk

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

Valuation and Earnings

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

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

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.

Profitability

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

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

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

Summary

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

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.

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.