El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc.

LOCO Consumer Cyclical Restaurants

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc.’s revenue for fiscal 2025 (year ended December 2025) was $490.0 million, up 3.60% from fiscal 2024. In the quarter to June 2026, revenue grew 2.97%, EPS grew 79.2%, free cash flow grew 155.5% and total debt fell 55.5%, each against the same quarter a year earlier. Operating cash flow growth for three consecutive years.

16.34 0.02 +0.12%
Market cap
$496.7M
P/E
13.8×
Fwd P/E
14.0×
Dividend yield
—
F-score
9/9
Altman Z
1.61
Beneish M
−2.52
Dividend safety
n/a

Insider Decisions trades per month

Total sells 9.60
Totals in millions of $.
Dec 25 Mar 26 Jun 26 Sep 26
Buy — — — — — — — — — — — —
Sell — — — — — — — 1 5 2 — —
Insider Ownership 4.94%

Capital & Financial Ratios $m

Market Cap 496.66
Revenue 500.79
Net Income 34.86
Free Cash Flow 41.01
Net Debt 18.05
Current Ratio 0.41 (below 1: weak)
Debt/Equity 0.10 (at or below 0.5: strong)
P/E ratio 13.85
Fwd P/E 14.00
P/S ratio 0.97
P/B ratio 1.53
Past 5Y EPS Growth 5.77%
This Y EPS Growth 4.76%
Next Y EPS Growth 7.79%
Next Y revenue growth 2.87%
Next 5Y EPS Growth 5.44%

Green and red mark values outside typical ranges. How we judge →

Valuation vs history

P/E against its own 10 years 28.57%
10-year low 10-year high
P/S against its own 10 years 49.32%
10-year low 10-year high
P/B against its own 10 years 48.21%
10-year low 10-year high
EV/Sales against its own 10 years 40.14%
10-year low 10-year high
EV/FCF against its own 10 years 3.21%
10-year low 10-year high

Dividends

Payout Ratio —
Annual Dividend Rate —
Annual Dividend Yield —
total individual payouts
2023 Powerpack
2022 0.00
1.50
2021 Powerpack
2020 Powerpack
2019 Powerpack
2017 Powerpack
special payouts not included in total or ratios

Assets vs Liabilities $m

2023 2024 2025 Q'26
Cash 7 2 6 13
Receivables 10 10 11 13
Inventory 2 2 2 2
Other — — — —
25 20 26 34
2023 2024 2025 Q'26
Payables 13 12 16 19
ST’ Debt — — — —
Other — — — —
73 76 79 85

Compound Annual Growth %

10y 5y 3y
Sales 3.27% 2.84% 1.40%
Cash Flow (1.85%) 3.47% 7.64%
Earnings 0.97% 1.59% 8.39%
Book Value 1.75% 0.95% 1.16%

Revenue $m

Mar Jun Sep Dec Year
’26 126 130 — — —
’25 119 126 122 124 490
’24 116 122 120 114 473
’23 115 121 120 112 469
’22 110 124 120 116 470
’21 108 122 116 109 454
’20 105 100 111 110 426
Fiscal quarters ending in the months shown.

Operating Cash Flow $m

Mar Jun Sep Dec Year
’26 13 32 — — —
’25 5 14 15 14 48
’24 11 17 13 6 47
’23 4 18 11 8 41
’22 (2) 14 10 17 39
’21 7 19 16 10 52
’20 (8) 19 22 7 41
Fiscal quarters ending in the months shown.

Free Cash Flow $m

Mar Jun Sep Dec Year
’26 3 23 — — —
’25 1 9 10 5 25
’24 7 10 9 1 28
’23 (2) 15 5 2 19
’22 (6) 9 6 10 19
’21 2 16 12 5 35
’20 (9) 18 21 5 34
Fiscal quarters ending in the months shown.

EPS $

Mar Jun Sep Dec Year
’26 0.27 0.43 — — —
’25 0.19 0.24 0.25 0.22 0.90
’24 0.19 0.25 0.21 0.20 0.86
’23 0.13 0.20 0.28 0.14 0.74
’22 0.06 0.20 0.14 0.18 0.57
’21 0.11 0.24 0.28 0.17 0.80
’20 0.10 0.16 0.28 0.15 0.68
Fiscal quarters ending in the months shown.

Target Price Range

Analyst price targets

Recommendation Rating

1.6
1Buy 2 3Hold 4 5Sell

Ten years at a glance Fiscal years to December

Group Line 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Trend 2026e 2027e 2028e
Price, $
Price, $ Low 10.08 9.55 9.05 9.60 6.15 12.06 8.15 8.11 8.17 8.29

Analyst estimates 2026–2028

Powerpack
High 15.44 14.85 16.95 18.47 19.90 21.96 14.79 13.00 14.25 12.65
People
People Employees 5,355 5,637 5,573 5,005 4,711 4,626 4,931 4,362 4,143 4,034
Revenue/emp, $m 0.07 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.09 0.10 0.10 0.11 0.11 0.12
Income, $m
Income, $m Revenue 380 402 436 442 426 454 470 469 473 490
Gross margin, % 25.56 24.79 27.74 28.11 28.27 29.07 25.51 28.12 30.83 31.90
EBT 31 9 (12) 35 30 39 29 35 35 38
EBT margin, % 8.19 2.27 (2.80) 7.82 7.07 8.68 6.15 7.44 7.46 7.67
Net income 18 9 (9) 25 24 29 21 26 26 26
Depreciation 16 18 18 18 17 15 15 15 16 16
Per share, $
Per share, $ Revenue 9.91 10.45 11.30 12.04 12.11 12.63 12.93 13.68 15.85 16.79
Earnings 0.48 0.22 (0.23) 0.68 0.70 0.81 0.57 0.75 0.86 0.91
Cash flow 1.29 1.40 1.18 0.98 1.15 1.45 1.06 1.19 1.57 1.65
Capex (0.98) (0.94) (0.72) (0.42) (0.19) (0.47) (0.55) (0.62) (0.64) (0.78)
Free cash flow 0.31 0.45 0.46 0.56 0.96 0.97 0.51 0.57 0.93 0.87
Book value 6.91 7.15 6.88 6.68 7.89 8.63 7.73 7.32 8.73 9.98
Shares, m 38 38 39 37 35 36 36 34 30 29
Valuation, ×
Valuation, × P/E 26.46 46.60 0.00 22.60 26.23 17.52 16.84 11.58 13.58 11.62
P/S 1.28 0.98 1.34 1.26 1.50 1.12 0.76 0.64 0.73 0.62
P/B 1.84 1.43 2.21 2.27 2.29 1.64 1.26 1.20 1.32 1.05
EV/Sales 1.55 1.19 1.50 1.46 2.04 1.15 0.86 0.81 0.88 0.72
EV/FCF 49.72 27.46 37.09 31.27 25.61 14.95 21.69 19.72 15.04 13.89
Cash, $m
Cash, $m Operating cash flow 49 54 45 36 41 52 39 41 47 48
Capex (37) (36) (28) (15) (7) (17) (20) (21) (19) (23)
Free cash flow 12 17 18 21 34 35 19 19 28 25
Balance, $m
Balance, $m Working capital (31) (27) (61) (49) (35) (25) (31) (47) (56) (53)
Total debt 104 93 74 97 241 42 68 86 73 52
Net debt 102 85 67 89 228 12 47 78 70 46
Shareholders’ equity 265 275 265 246 278 311 281 251 261 291
Returns, %
Returns, % ROA 3.93 1.89 (2.01) 4.63 3.98 4.78 3.44 4.30 4.34 4.42
ROIC 5.89 1.19 (1.78) 7.16 4.15 8.02 5.73 7.56 7.78 7.79
ROE 7.19 3.19 (3.33) 9.75 9.36 9.90 7.03 9.61 10.05 9.60
Negative figures in brackets.

All 10 years →

Fiscal years to Dec 2025 · latest quarter Jun 2026

Charts ten years each

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. vs peers in Restaurants (Q) = latest quarter vs a year earlier

Company Market cap P/E Fwd P/E Revenue growth (Q) EPS growth (Q) FCF growth (Q) Gross margin (Q) EBIT margin (Q) Compare
PZZA Papa John's International, Inc. $644.3M 23.9× 22.7× −8.84% (below 0%: shrinking) −10.71% (below 0%: shrinking) −31.42% (below 0%: shrinking) 29.72% 4.81% Compare
HDL Super Hi International Holding Ltd. Unsponsored ADR $634.3M 37.9× — +9.99% (above 0%: growing) n/m +43.42% (above 0%: growing) 65.85% 5.26% Compare
LOCO El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. $496.7M 13.8× 14.0× +2.97% (above 0%: growing) +79.17% (above 0%: growing) +155.53% (above 0%: growing) 32.80% 14.42%
BH.A Biglari Holdings Inc. $491.2M — (loss-making) — (loss-making) −1.19% (below 0%: shrinking) −18.71% (below 0%: shrinking) −73.82% (below 0%: shrinking) 30.05% 0.00% Compare
KRUS Kura Sushi USA, Inc. $475.3M — (loss-making) — (loss-making) +16.17% (above 0%: growing) −40.00% (below 0%: shrinking) +46.90% (above 0%: growing) 11.94% (0.05%) Compare
DIN DINE BRANDS GLOBAL, INC. $417.8M 65.3× 8.5× +4.38% (above 0%: growing) −60.67% (below 0%: shrinking) −97.04% (below 0%: shrinking) 37.86% 13.16% Compare
NATH Nathan's Famous, Inc. $417.5M 20.9× 24.9× +15.03% (above 0%: growing) −0.92% (below 0%: shrinking) +363.28% (above 0%: growing) 32.63% 23.43% Compare
BRCB Black Rock Coffee Bar, Inc. $414.1M — (loss-making) 31.3× +25.01% (above 0%: growing) — −27.71% (below 0%: shrinking) 73.07% 6.51% Compare
PTLO Portillo's Inc. $363.8M 24.6× 19.4× +5.57% (above 0%: growing) −23.08% (below 0%: shrinking) +13.07% (above 0%: growing) 65.03% 6.92% Compare
Median of peers $446.5M 24.6× 22.7× +7.78% −20.89% −7.32% 35.25% 5.89%

All 56 Restaurants stocks →

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (LOCO) key facts

  • Strength: El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc.’s revenue for fiscal 2025 (year ended December 2025) was $490.0 million, up 3.60% from fiscal 2024.
  • El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (LOCO) is a Restaurants company in the Consumer Cyclical sector, listed on Nasdaq.
  • As of October 16, 2026, LOCO traded at $16.34, a market capitalization of $496.7 million.
  • Return on equity was 9.60% and debt-to-equity 0.10.
  • Its Piotroski F-score is 9 out of 9 and its Altman Z-score is 1.61 (distress zone) for fiscal 2025.

Source: company filings (standardised) and stockrow calculations.

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (LOCO) Latest News

13 Aug

23 Nov

3 Nov

stockrow.com/LOCO · Data as of Jun 30, 2026 · For information only; not investment advice. · © 2026 stockrow.com