Restaurant 10 Index
Ten US fast-food chains as one index, equal-weighted and tracked every trading day since October 2021 — then what the market pays for each against what it gets, and every company's figures. Numbers, no calls. How the index is built.
Restaurant 10 index
Holdings
What you pay, what you get
All 10 holdings
| Company | Model | Price | P / E | Op. margin | FCF yield | Div. yield | Payout | Net debt / EBITDA | Lights | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WINGWingstop | Franchisor | 11.1% | 121.46 | −53.1% | 4 | 18.8× | −62% below | 28.9 | +7.6% | 28.7% | 3.9% | 1.0% | 166% | 4.6× | PayoutSlowing |
| YUMYum! Brands | Franchisor | 10.6% | 149.80 | +4.5% | 53 | 18.2× | −8% below | 18.8 | +10.3% | 31.0% | 4.0% | 1.9% | 101% | 3.9× | Payout |
| SBUXStarbucks | Company-operated | 10.5% | 102.16 | +18.7% | 127 | 24.1× | +25% above | 58.7 | +4.5% | 9.4% | 3.1% | 2.4% | 77% | 1.8× | — |
| BROSDutch Bros | Company-operated | 10.4% | 41.76 | −26.6% | 6 | 18.0× | −34% below | 58.0 | +29.6% | 9.7% | 1.7% | 0.0% | 1% | -0.2× | — |
| MCDMcDonald's | Franchisor | 10.4% | 249.82 | −18.3% | 217 | 14.4× | −20% below | 20.3 | +6.3% | 46.2% | 4.4% | 2.9% | 97% | 2.6× | — |
| QSRRestaurant Brands | Franchisor | 10.1% | 74.29 | +10.2% | 47 | 15.9× | −13% below | 21.9 | +6.5% | 27.1% | 4.6% | 3.3% | 65% | 4.2× | Slowing |
| DPZDomino's | Franchisor | 10.0% | 309.91 | −25.3% | 15 | 13.7× | −33% below | 17.1 | +4.5% | 19.8% | 6.2% | 2.5% | 103% | 4.3× | Payout |
| WENWendy's | Franchisor | 9.3% | 6.17 | −31.2% | 4 | 7.6× | −35% below | 9.4 | −1.0% | 13.4% | 22.4% | 9.0% | 47% | 5.1× | LeverageSlowing |
| CAVACAVA | Company-operated | 9.1% | 51.17 | −19.5% | 6 | 32.0× | −60% below | 92.7 | +26.8% | 6.8% | 0.8% | 0.0% | 0% | -2.5× | — |
| CMGChipotle | Company-operated | 8.5% | 28.28 | −31.3% | 36 | 15.8× | −51% below | 25.9 | +7.3% | 15.2% | 4.3% | 0.0% | 177% | -0.3× | Payout |
How the index is built
Members: ten US-listed fast-food and fast-casual chains, picked by hand on market value and search interest and reviewed once a year (casual dining left out). Weights: equal, reset on the first trading day of every quarter at the previous day's closes, so McDonald's and Starbucks cannot be most of the index. Base: 100 at the close before October 1, 2021, Dutch Bros' first full quarter of trading; a company joins at the first reset after it lists (CAVA in July 2023).
Price only: dividends are not reinvested, and prices are adjusted for splits. Candles: each member's open, high, low and close times the shares the index holds, so a candle's high is the sum of the members' highs — an upper bound on the true intraday high. A day on which any member has no price is left out. Market-cap weighted is the same ten held at their market value, for comparison. Survivorship: the members are today's choice carried back to 2021, so the history is how these ten did, not a fund anyone could have bought then.
The figures: trailing four quarters from each company's filed statements. EV / EBITDA leaves lease liabilities out of debt, and EBITDA is operating income plus depreciation and amortisation; the five-year median is over quarter-end multiples. Lights: net debt above 5× EBITDA; dividends and buybacks above 100% of free cash flow, or any while it is not positive; revenue shrinking, or growing more than 10 points slower than a year earlier.
Questions
What is the Restaurant 10?
An index of ten US fast-food and fast-casual chains, built by this site: McDonald's, Starbucks, Yum! Brands, Chipotle, Restaurant Brands, Domino's, Dutch Bros, CAVA, Wingstop and Wendy's. Each is held at an equal weight, reset every quarter, and the index started at 100 on October 1, 2021. It is recomputed from the members' daily prices after every US close.
Why these ten?
They were picked by hand on market value and on how often people search for them, which is why Wendy's is in and a few larger or newer names are not. Casual dining (Darden, Texas Roadhouse) is left out on purpose: sit-down restaurants are a different business. The list is reviewed once a year, and every member was chosen with today's knowledge, so the history shows how these ten did, not a fund anyone could have held in 2021.
How is the index calculated?
On the first trading day of each quarter the index is split into equal parts at the previous day's closes, and each part buys that member's shares. Between resets each day's value is the sum of the shares held times that day's prices, for the open, high, low and close alike. A company joins at the first reset after it lists (CAVA in July 2023), dividends are not reinvested, and a day on which any member has no price is left out rather than filled in.
Why equal weight and not market cap?
By market value McDonald's and Starbucks alone would be most of the index, and it would mostly measure two companies. Equal weight lets a Wingstop or a Dutch Bros move it as much as McDonald's does. The market-cap weighted version of the same ten is drawn on the chart for comparison.
Why EV / EBITDA and revenue growth?
EV / EBITDA is what the market pays for the business before financing: enterprise value (market value plus debt minus cash) over earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, which works the same for a franchisor and for a chain that owns its restaurants. Lease liabilities are left out of debt and rent stays inside EBITDA, so the two sides of the ratio match. Revenue growth is what the business is delivering, set against the year before.
Is there an ETF that tracks this?
No. The Restaurant 10 is a measurement made by this site, not a product, and no fund follows it. A few funds hold restaurant stocks, but with their own members and weights.
Why are same-store sales not here?
Same-store (comparable) sales are the industry's most watched number, but companies report them in their earnings releases and each defines them its own way, and they are not in the filed statements this page reads. Revenue growth stands in for them.
Is a falling index a reason to act?
It describes how ten share prices moved and what the market pays for each business against its own history, and nothing more. It is not investment advice and it does not say what to do.
The weekly
The week's 13F filings, insider trades and earnings, plus new research on the site. One email a week, no account.
The Restaurant 10 is computed by SweetValueLab from daily prices and filed statements (Financial Modeling Prep), updated after every US close. It describes how ten stocks moved and is not investment advice.