Analyzing Ark Restaurants (NASDAQ:ARKR) & Domino’s Pizza (NASDAQ:DPZ)

Domino’s Pizza (NASDAQ:DPZ) and Ark Restaurants (NASDAQ:ARKR) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Domino’s Pizza and Ark Restaurants, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Domino’s Pizza	1	12	17	0	2.53
Ark Restaurants	1	0	0	0	1.00

Domino’s Pizza presently has a consensus price target of $412.97, suggesting a potential upside of 35.76%. Given Domino’s Pizza’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Domino’s Pizza is more favorable than Ark Restaurants.

Profitability

This table compares Domino’s Pizza and Ark Restaurants’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Domino’s Pizza	11.89%	-15.04%	33.66%
Ark Restaurants	-3.97%	-8.49%	-2.09%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Domino’s Pizza and Ark Restaurants”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Domino’s Pizza	$4.94 billion	2.05	$601.70 million	$17.37	17.51
Ark Restaurants	$165.75 million	0.13	-$11.47 million	($1.74)	-3.42

Domino’s Pizza has higher revenue and earnings than Ark Restaurants. Ark Restaurants is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Domino’s Pizza, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Domino’s Pizza has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ark Restaurants has a beta of 0.33, indicating that its share price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

94.6% of Domino’s Pizza shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.0% of Ark Restaurants shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Domino’s Pizza shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 37.5% of Ark Restaurants shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Domino’s Pizza beats Ark Restaurants on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Domino’s Pizza

Domino’s Pizza, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a pizza company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: U.S. Stores, International Franchise, and Supply Chain. It offers pizzas under the Domino’s brand name through company-owned and franchised stores. It also provides oven-baked sandwiches, pastas, boneless chicken and chicken wings, breads and dips, desserts, and soft drink products, as well as loaded tots and pepperoni stuffed cheesy breads. Domino’s Pizza, Inc. was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

About Ark Restaurants

Ark Restaurants Corp., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates restaurants and bars in the United States. It operates restaurants in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Las Vegas, Nevada; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Florida; and Alabama, as well as fast food concepts and catering operations. The company was incorporated in 1983 and is based in New York, New York.