Xponential Fitness (NYSE:XPOF) vs. Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Head to Head Review

Xponential Fitness (NYSE:XPOF) and Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability and risk.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Xponential Fitness and Darden Restaurants”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Xponential Fitness	$288.47 million	0.75	-$33.79 million	($1.47)	-2.97
Darden Restaurants	$13.37 billion	1.66	$1.21 billion	$10.23	19.06

Darden Restaurants has higher revenue and earnings than Xponential Fitness. Xponential Fitness is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Darden Restaurants, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Xponential Fitness and Darden Restaurants’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Xponential Fitness	-13.64%	-3.40%	-0.66%
Darden Restaurants	8.85%	58.64%	9.56%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

58.5% of Xponential Fitness shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.6% of Darden Restaurants shares are held by institutional investors. 24.1% of Xponential Fitness shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Darden Restaurants shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Xponential Fitness and Darden Restaurants, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Xponential Fitness	1	10	1	0	2.00
Darden Restaurants	0	9	18	0	2.67

Xponential Fitness presently has a consensus price target of $6.50, suggesting a potential upside of 48.95%. Darden Restaurants has a consensus price target of $232.38, suggesting a potential upside of 19.15%. Given Xponential Fitness’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Xponential Fitness is more favorable than Darden Restaurants.

Volatility and Risk

Xponential Fitness has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Darden Restaurants has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Darden Restaurants beats Xponential Fitness on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Xponential Fitness

Xponential Fitness, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a boutique fitness franchisor in North America. It offers pilates, indoor cycling, barre, stretching, rowing, dancing, boxing, running, functional training, and yoga services under the Club Pilates, Pure Barre, CycleBar, StretchLab, Row House, YogaSix, Rumble, AKT, Stride, and BFT brands. Xponential Fitness, Inc. was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.

About Darden Restaurants

Darden Restaurants, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates full-service restaurants in the United States and Canada. It operates under Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, and Capital Burger brand names. Darden Restaurants, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is based in Orlando, Florida.