Restaurant stocks comparison
Query: US restaurant stocks with market cap above 5 billion dollars compared by forward P/E, revenue growth, operating margin and 1-year return · data as of 2026-10-08
Built a single comparison table of 11 US-listed restaurant stocks with market cap above $5B, sorted by market cap descending: MCD, SBUX, YUM, QSR, DRI, YUMC, TXRH, DPZ, EAT, BROS, CAVA. Columns cover symbol, company, industry, market cap, forward P/E, P/E (TTM), revenue growth YoY, 5Y revenue CAGR, operating margin, 1M/6M/1Y returns, EV/EBITDA, FCF yield, % from 52W high and trend tag — plus per-name qualitative insights and a sector takeaway narrative on the value-vs-growth barbell.
11 US-listed restaurant names above $5B market cap, ranked by size as of October 8, 2026. Mega-cap franchisors (McDonald's, Starbucks, Yum!, Restaurant Brands) trade at premium multiples but face soft traffic, while faster-growing casual-dining and coffee names (Brinker, Dutch Bros, CAVA) screen much cheaper on forward earnings.
US Restaurant Stocks — $5B+ Market Cap Comparison
| Symbol | Company | Industry | Market Cap | Forward P/E | P/E (TTM) | Revenue Growth (YoY) | Revenue CAGR (5Y) | Operating Margin | 1M Return | 6M Return | 1Y Return | EV/EBITDA | FCF Yield | % From 52W High | Trend | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCD | McDonald's Corporation | Restaurants | 1.676e+11 | 16.92 | 19.24 | 3.72% | 6.96% | 46.10% | -6.54% | -22.40% | -18.00% | 16.163 | 4.40% | -30.54% | Downtrend | The category's bellwether and its richest cash-flow machine — franchised model throws off enormous free cash flow and the dividend is well covered. Risk is the traffic equation: value-menu wars with a resurgent QSR industry and a soft low-income consumer are squeezing US same-store sales, while international (especially IEO) is the offsetting lever. A defensive, bond-proxy holding in the current tape where cash generators are bid. |
| SBUX | Starbucks Corporation | Restaurants | 1.063e+11 | 29.92 | 53.88 | 2.79% | 9.60% | 7.90% | -6.83% | -2.71% | 17.59% | 25.131 | 2.29% | -14.13% | Downtrend | The biggest valuation gap in the group — a depressed earnings base (heavy reinvestment in labor, store remodels and the turnaround plan) has pushed the trailing multiple to an extreme while the forward multiple assumes recovery. Catalyst is China's recovery plus the 'Back to Starbucks' service/coffeehouse reset; the key risk is that unionization friction and wage inflation keep margins structurally below the old peak. High beta to any consumer-discretionary re-rating. |
| YUM | Yum! Brands, Inc. | Restaurants | 3.902e+10 | 19.17 | 18.01 | 8.81% | 7.76% | 31.34% | -1.49% | -10.18% | -0.64% | 17.836 | 4.28% | -14.96% | Downtrend | Asset-light franchising and Taco Bell's value positioning make it the most resilient traffic story among mega-cap QSRs, with KFC and Pizza Hut providing emerging-market optionality. Digital/loyalty mix and unit growth underpin the mid-single-digit revenue profile. Trades near the peer average, so upside depends on continued Taco Bell comps rather than multiple expansion. |
| QSR | Restaurant Brands International | Restaurants | 3.237e+10 | 15.98 | 17.75 | 12.23% | 13.68% | 23.34% | -7.42% | -6.41% | 8.87% | 14.839 | 4.56% | -13.48% | — | Cheapest forward multiple of the mega-cap franchisors, helped by a burger-heavy mix (Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes) that is being reimaged. Heavy debt load from the franchise-heavy rollup structure makes it the most rate-sensitive name in the group — the current 'no near-term cuts' backdrop pressures refinancing math. The turnaround in Burger King US is the swing factor. |
| DRI | Darden Restaurants, Inc. | Restaurants | 2.269e+10 | 16.19 | 19.21 | 9.39% | 12.92% | 11.98% | -4.25% | 3.75% | 8.01% | 15.331 | — | -11.93% | — | The casual-dining stalwart (Olive Garden, LongHorn) with consistent comps and cost discipline, and one of only a few names that grew revenue and margins simultaneously. Its lower-margin owned-store model means food and labor inflation hit harder than at franchisors, but a strong value-for-money positioning has held traffic. A steadier, lower-volatility way to play dine-in. |
| YUMC | Yum China Holdings, Inc. | Restaurants | 1.411e+10 | 12.43 | 15.3 | 4.37% | 7.38% | 10.93% | -1.88% | -15.64% | -0.04% | 9.055 | 6.12% | -27.90% | Downtrend | The only true China-exposure vehicle here — a separate listing of Yum! Brands' China business with its own KFC/Pizza Hut footprint and a capital-light, heavily-franchised refranchising trajectory. Deepest value screen in the table, but the discount reflects macro/geopolitical risk, soft Chinese consumer spending and FX headwinds rather than pure fundamentals. A binary macro call. |
| TXRH | Texas Roadhouse, Inc. | Restaurants | 1.068e+10 | 20.92 | 26.08 | 9.39% | 19.64% | 8.08% | -9.21% | -0.30% | -0.66% | 19.801 | 3.21% | -24.04% | — | One of the best unit-growth stories in casual dining — steady new-store openings drive a mid-teens revenue algorithm with superior margins for an owned-store model. Trades at a premium to peers that is justified by the growth runway, but the stock's sensitivity to beef/food inflation and the pace of new openings makes the multiple vulnerable on any comp deceleration. |
| DPZ | Domino's Pizza Inc | Restaurants | 1.021e+10 | 14.79 | 17.49 | 4.96% | 6.42% | 19.31% | -3.39% | -16.29% | -23.36% | 16.157 | 6.70% | -29.60% | Downtrend | Pure delivery-and-carryout franchising with high royalty margins and the strongest brand-recognition moat in pizza. Its biggest overhang is at the franchisee level — third-party aggregator fees and delivery-partner economics squeeze store-level profitability, capping the ability to open new units. Trades at a discount to its own history, making it a value-plus-brand candidate if the delivery environment stabilizes. |
| EAT | Brinker International, Inc. | Restaurants | 7.966e+09 | 13.13 | 17.51 | 21.95% | 11.83% | 9.51% | -11.66% | 27.14% | 48.90% | 13.306 | 5.33% | -25.10% | Uptrend | The turnaround darling of the group — Chili's has been winning value-seeking diners from fast-casual rivals with a simplified menu and aggressive promo calendar, driving the fattest revenue growth in the table and a re-rating of a name that was on the discount pile. The risk is that this comp momentum is promotional and mean-reverting; the entire thesis rests on whether the traffic gains stick once the promotional intensity normalizes. |
| BROS | Dutch Bros Inc. | Restaurants | 6.977e+09 | 30.27 | 55.25 | 27.88% | 37.99% | 9.84% | -11.52% | -28.77% | -16.53% | 24.839 | 0.81% | -45.74% | Downtrend | One of the fastest unit-growth stories in the sector — a drive-through-led coffee brand expanding aggressively into new markets, with company-owned stores driving revenue. Sits on one of the highest multiples because the market is capitalizing a long runway rather than near-term profits; the risk is execution and cannibalization as it scales, plus sensitivity to coffee commodity costs and wage inflation. High-beta growth optionality. |
| CAVA | CAVA Group, Inc. | Restaurants | 6.344e+09 | 73.21 | 96.98 | 22.41% | — | 4.69% | -3.89% | -36.96% | -11.88% | 49.207 | 0.43% | -44.23% | Downtrend | The most expensive name in the table and the fastest-growing — a Mediterranean fast-casual concept with a small but rapidly expanding footprint and a long runway of new units. The premium multiple prices in years of high-growth compounding, leaving little room for error; same-store sales deceleration or a misstep in new-market openings would be punished severely. The stock is a pure secular-growth bet, not a value one. |
Takeaway
Restaurant sector read
A barbell shaped by the consumer. The 11 names above $5B split cleanly into two camps: cash-generative franchisors trading at mid-teens forward multiples (McDonald's, Restaurant Brands, Yum!, Domino's, Yum China) and growth concepts where the market pays up for a long unit runway (CAVA, Dutch Bros, and arguably Chipotle-priced Texas Roadhouse). The middle — Darden, Brinker — are the value-plus-comps plays.
The macro is not helping discretionary. Consumer Discretionary is one of the weakest US sectors over the past year, and the current tape is rewarding cash-generative, lower-duration businesses over anything that needs cheap capital or a re-rating. That favors the franchised, FCF-rich names and pressures the high-multiple growth concepts whose valuation depends on a distant terminal value.
Two idiosyncratic setups stand out. Starbucks screens as the widest valuation gap in the group — a depressed earnings base against a forward multiple that assumes the turnaround lands, making it a high-conviction recovery bet. Brinker is the rare name with accelerating top-line momentum being rewarded rather than punished, though its promotional-fueled comps raise a durability question.
What to watch: wage and food-inflation commentary, value-menu intensity in QSR, and any sign that low-income traffic stabilizes. In a 'no near-term cuts' rate regime, the leveraged franchisor models (Restaurant Brands) carry the most refinancing sensitivity, while the asset-light royalty streams (Domino's, Yum!) remain the cleanest defensive cash-flow exposure.
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