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MARKETS / NASDAQ / Consumer discretionary / Restaurants / LOCO
NASDAQ · RETAIL-EATING PLACES · MID CAP

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. LOCO

14 fiscal years on record · USD · FY2025 reported · SEC filings only
$490.0M
▲ 3.6% YoY
$26.5M
▲ 3.1% YoY
$25.4M
▼ 8.2% YoY

Slide the table for earlier years · "·" marks a figure not available in our data for that year.

In brief

What this company does

El Pollo Loco specializes in fire-grilling citrus-marinated chicken and operates in the limited service restaurant market segment. As of December 31, 2025, the company operated a restaurant system of 503 domestic restaurants, comprised of 175 company-operated and 328 franchised restaurants. Its restaurants are located principally in California, and also in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Utah, Colorado, Washington and Louisiana. As of December 31, 2025, the company also had 8 licensed restaurants in the Philippines. The company operates in one operating segment, with revenues relating to retail sales of food and beverages through company-operated or franchised restaurants. The company opened its first location on Alvarado Street in Los Angeles, California, in 1980.

Written from the business description in El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc.'s annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed 13 March 2026. Every sentence was checked against that document before publication.

Growth

USD 490.0M
Revenue, FY2025 · full 14-year series below
Revenue $M Net income $M
FY2025 · Revenue 490.0 · Net income 26.5
200M400M
201220152018202120242025
Compound annual growth
+1.4%
+2.8%
+3.3%
+8.4%
+1.6%
+1.0%
+16.4%
+5.8%
+3.8%
−76.3%
3 yrs
5 yrs
10 yrs
15 yrs

Revenue compounded at +2.8% a year over the five years to FY2025 — but profit grew slower: net income at +1.6%, earnings per share at +5.8%.

The share count fell from 0.04B to 0.03B — the buyback concentrates the same profit into fewer slices.

Compound annual rates per period — left blank where that exact year isn't on file, the series crosses a loss, or (per-share rows) a split falls inside the window.

Profitability

5 cents
of every revenue dollar became profit
Operating margin Net margin
FY2025 · Operating 8.6% · Net 5.4%
5%10%-2%-4%
201220182025
ROE
FY2025 · ROE 9.6%
10%20%30%-10%-20%
201220182025
Three returns, three denominators.
Gross margin·
Operating margin8.6%
Net margin5.4%
EBITDAUSD 58.0M

Each USD of equity produced 10 cents of profit this year.

Cash & shareholders

USD 737,000.00
returned in FY2025 · dividends + net buybacks
Free cash flow $M
FY2025 · FCF 25.4
15M30M
201220182025
Net buybacks $M Dividends $M
FY2025 · Dividends · · Net buybacks 0.7
25.0M50.0M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Dividends paid·
Net buybacksUSD 737,000.00
Share of profit2.8%
Consecutive raises·

USD 737,000.00 in buybacks — 3% of the year's profit went back to shareholders.

Total assetsUSD 606.6M
EquityUSD 291.1M
CashUSD 6.2M
Gross debtUSD 51.0M
Net debtUSD 44.8M
Current ratio0.32×

Net debt stands at 15% of equity.

The 14-year record

14 fiscal years
Every figure from documents filed with the SEC · USD
row low → row highnegative—not applicable◌not available in our data
LOCO, 14-year financial record
Metric 20252024202320222021202020192018201720162015201420132012
Revenue $B0.50.50.50.50.50.40.40.40.40.40.40.30.30.3
Operating income $B0.00.00.00.00.00.00.0−0.00.00.00.00.00.0−0.0
EBITDA $B0.10.10.10.00.10.10.10.00.00.10.10.10.10.0
Income tax $B0.00.00.00.00.00.00.0−0.00.00.00.0−0.10.00.0
Net income $B0.00.00.00.00.00.00.0−0.00.00.00.00.0−0.0−0.0
Free cash flow $B0.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.0−0.00.00.0
EPS, diluted $0.900.860.740.570.800.680.67−0.230.220.470.621.24−0.59−0.27
Dividend / sh $◌◌◌1.50◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌
Payout %———267——————————
ROE %9.610.09.67.09.99.49.7−3.33.27.210.632.8−29.8−12.2
Shares out B0.030.030.030.040.040.040.040.040.040.040.040.040.03◌

Slide the table for earlier years. "—" not applicable · "◌" not available in our data.

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Provenance

Company facts, as filed

How we verify · 0 failures in 54 reconciliationsAUDITED

Reconciled in 14 of the 14 fiscal years we could check. 12 checks were skipped: the balance sheet is not tagged before 2013. Five checks were skipped: EPS is not tagged before 2012.

EPS recomputationBalance-sheet identityGross profitBalance-sheet liquidityCurrency consistency0 failures
ActivityRetail-Eating Places
Listed onNASDAQ
Incorporated inDelaware
Fiscal year endsDecember 30
Data on record since2012

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