Contrasting TH International (NASDAQ:THCH) & Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG)

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) and TH International (NASDAQ:THCH) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.3% of Chipotle Mexican Grill shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.9% of TH International shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Chipotle Mexican Grill shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Chipotle Mexican Grill and TH International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chipotle Mexican Grill	12.88%	47.99%	17.15%
TH International	-25.22%	N/A	-17.98%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Chipotle Mexican Grill and TH International, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chipotle Mexican Grill	1	10	24	0	2.66
TH International	1	0	0	0	1.00

Chipotle Mexican Grill presently has a consensus target price of $47.47, indicating a potential upside of 42.29%. Given Chipotle Mexican Grill’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Chipotle Mexican Grill is more favorable than TH International.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Chipotle Mexican Grill and TH International”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chipotle Mexican Grill	$11.93 billion	3.64	$1.54 billion	$1.14	29.26
TH International	$190.59 million	N/A	-$57.32 million	($1.43)	-1.45

Chipotle Mexican Grill has higher revenue and earnings than TH International. TH International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Chipotle Mexican Grill, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Chipotle Mexican Grill has a beta of 1, indicating that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, TH International has a beta of 0.53, indicating that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Chipotle Mexican Grill beats TH International on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants. It sells food and beverages through offering burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas, tacos, and salads. The company also provides delivery and related services its app and website. It has operations in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Newport Beach, California.

About TH International

TH International Limited operates Tim Hortons coffee shops in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. The company offers brewed tea, coffee, milk tea, lemonade, hot chocolate, and coffee drinks. It is also involved in franchise related business. The company is based in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China.