Reviewing Chefs’ Warehouse (NASDAQ:CHEF) & Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART)

Chefs’ Warehouse (NASDAQ:CHEF) and Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and risk.

Volatility and Risk

Chefs’ Warehouse has a beta of 1.44, suggesting that its share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Maplebear has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Chefs’ Warehouse and Maplebear, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chefs’ Warehouse	0	2	5	0	2.71
Maplebear	0	6	14	0	2.70

Chefs’ Warehouse presently has a consensus price target of $118.33, indicating a potential upside of 6.34%. Maplebear has a consensus price target of $58.24, indicating a potential upside of 16.68%. Given Maplebear’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Maplebear is more favorable than Chefs’ Warehouse.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Chefs’ Warehouse and Maplebear”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chefs’ Warehouse	$4.15 billion	1.09	$72.36 million	$2.10	52.99
Maplebear	$3.74 billion	3.09	$447.00 million	$1.83	27.27

Maplebear has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Chefs’ Warehouse. Maplebear is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Chefs’ Warehouse, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Chefs’ Warehouse and Maplebear’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chefs’ Warehouse	2.09%	16.95%	5.19%
Maplebear	11.97%	20.19%	14.13%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

91.5% of Chefs’ Warehouse shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.1% of Maplebear shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.1% of Chefs’ Warehouse shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 24.0% of Maplebear shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Maplebear beats Chefs’ Warehouse on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Chefs’ Warehouse

The Chefs’ Warehouse, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes specialty food and center-of-the-plate products in the United States, the Middle East, and Canada. The company’s product portfolio includes specialty food products, such as artisan charcuterie, specialty cheeses, unique oils and vinegars, truffles, caviar, chocolate, and pastry products; and center-of-the-plate products consisting of custom cut beef, seafood, and hormone-free poultry, as well as broadline food products comprising cooking oils, butter, eggs, milk, and flour. The company serves menu-driven independent restaurants, fine dining establishments, country clubs, hotels, caterers, culinary schools, bakeries, patisseries, chocolatiers, cruise lines, casinos, and specialty food stores. It markets its center-of-the-plate products directly to consumers through a mail and e-commerce platform. The Chefs’ Warehouse, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

About Maplebear

Maplebear Inc., doing business as Instacart, engages in the provision of online grocery shopping services to households in North America. It sells and delivers grocery products, as well as pickup services through a mobile application and website. It also operates virtual convenience stores; and provides software-as-a-service solutions to retailers. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California.