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Quick-service burger chain known for fresh never-frozen beef, operating mostly through franchisees.
Quick-service burger chain known for fresh never-frozen beef, operating mostly through franchisees.
Earns mainly royalties on franchisee sales, plus rent from restaurant properties it owns or leases and sublets to them, and advertising contributions pooled from franchisees. Only a small number of restaurants are company-run, so sales per restaurant move its income more than restaurant costs do.
Moat: narrow (brand, distribution). Long-established fresh-beef positioning and large franchised footprint versus smaller rivals.
Headquarters: Dublin, Ohio, US · Founded: 1969 · Employees: 14,900
Size Wendy's (WEN) is a United States Consumer Discretionary company (Restaurants) with a market value of $1.55B, the 1969th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $8.15 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 11.6%, against +22.4% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 6th lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 1.0% over the last twelve months (peer median +5.5%); the operating margin is 13.1% (peer median 5.7%).
Valuation It trades at 17.9× forward earnings against a peer median of 26.4× (7th cheapest of 19).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 2% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +5%, so the hurdle is -2 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 0.4 points above its cost of capital (5.8% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $89.2M at 27 Sep 2026, down 10% on a year earlier — 0.0 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Short interest Short interest is 27.4% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 3 Mar 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $2.20B | $2.18B | $2.25B | $2.18B | $2.10B |
| Revenue growth | — | -3% | +3% | +4% | — |
| Gross profit | $553M | $585M | $632M | $628M | $585M |
| EBITDA | $466M | $503M | $535M | $527M | $500M |
| Net income | $126M | $165M | $194M | $204M | $177M |
| Free cash flow | $264M | $243M | $261M | $260M | $174M |
| Capital expenditure | $94.3M | $102M | $94.4M | $85.0M | $85.5M |
| Total debt | $4.07B | $4.15B | $4.09B | $4.14B | $4.28B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wendy's WEN | $1.55B | +12% | -1% | 13% | 17.9× | 2.4% |
| McDonald's MCD | $196B | 0% | +6% | 46% | 20.7× | 4.1% |
| Restaurant Brands International QSR | $35.1B | -3% | +6% | 27% | 18.1× | 6.3% |
| Jack in the Box JACK | n/a | +2% | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | WEN | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +31.0% | +1.9% | highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +11.6% | +22.4% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -19.5% | -12.2% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -1.0% | +5.5% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 13.1% | 5.7% | 5th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 17.9× | 26.4× | 7th cheapest of 19 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 2.4% | 12.2% | 5th least demanding of 20 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.7% | +15.6% | 3rd lowest of 20 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -2.2 pp | +0.5 pp | 9th least demanding of 20 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +0.4 pp | +0.2 pp | 11th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 11.0× | 12.8× | 7th cheapest of 17 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 7.7× | 3.3× | 2nd most indebted of 18 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wendy's WEN | United States | $1.55B | +12% | -1% | 13% | 17.9× | 2.4% | +4.7% |
| Colowide 7616.T | Japan | $1.51B | +21% | +16% | 4% | n/a | 13.6% | +12.3% |
| Monogatari 3097.T | Japan | $1.50B | +43% | +22% | 8% | 25.4× | 2.0% | +18.8% |
| Domino's Pizza Enterprises DMP.AX | Australia | $1.48B | +48% | -11% | 5% | 16.9× | 17.9% | -1.4% |
| Travel Food Services TRAVELFOOD.NS | India | $1.63B | -6% | -2% | 30% | 31.7× | 13.0% | +15.6% |
| Arcos Dorados ARCO | United States | $1.45B | -23% | +11% | 6% | 9.1× | -3.5% | +18.7% |
| Cracker Barrel Old Country Store CBRL | United States | $1.45B | +106% | -5% | 0% | 30.3× | 14.0% | +3.3% |
| Devyani International DEVYANI.NS | India | $1.68B | +8% | +14% | 4% | 323.9× | 52.1% | +37.6% |
| Sweetgreen SG | United States | $1.43B | +72% | -1% | -18% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| J D Wetherspoon JDW.L | United Kingdom | $1.33B | +69% | +5% | 5% | 19.6× | 7.7% | +23.7% |
| Guzman y Gomez GYG.AX | Australia | $1.82B | +55% | +19% | 17% | 51.0× | 32.7% | +34.2% |
| Guangzhou Restaurant 603043.SS | China | $1.31B | 0% | +9% | 11% | 17.3× | -3.5% | +10.4% |
| Yoshinoya 9861.T | Japan | $1.84B | +42% | +10% | 4% | 45.5× | 11.2% | +5.8% |
| SSP SSPG.L | United Kingdom | $1.87B | +17% | +5% | 7% | 13.9× | 2.6% | +20.5% |
| Domino's Pizza DOM.L | United Kingdom | $1.19B | +24% | +6% | 15% | 13.1× | 9.5% | +6.3% |
| BJ's Restaurants BJRI | United States | $1.18B | +30% | +4% | 3% | 22.5× | 26.8% | +12.4% |
| Xiaocaiyuan International 0999.HK | Hong Kong | $1.17B | +16% | +3% | 15% | 13.1× | -9.6% | +15.8% |
| Ohsho Food Service 9936.T | Japan | $1.11B | -1% | 0% | 7% | 27.5× | 4.2% | +7.7% |
| Westlife Foodworld WESTLIFE.NS | India | $1.08B | +31% | +10% | 5% | 343.5× | 49.0% | +21.7% |
| Ichibanya 7630.T | Japan | $1.06B | +21% | +8% | 6% | 57.3× | 12.2% | +8.2% |
| create restaurants 3387.T | Japan | $2.34B | +14% | +3% | 5% | 65.7× | 17.8% | +17.3% |
Wendy's reported $89.2M of remaining performance obligations at 27 Sep 2026, down 10% from a year earlier and down 2% from the previous quarter. That is 0.0 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 1.00.