Nathan's Famous, Inc. NATH

Competitive advantage analysis · consumer-cyclical

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
68/100
Moderate

About Nathan's Famous, Inc.

Nathan's Famous, Inc., along with its subsidiaries, operates in the foodservice industry both in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Branded Product Program; Product licensing; and Restaurant operations. The company owns and franchises restaurants under the Nathan's Famous brand name and sells products bearing the Nathan's Famous trademarks through various distribution channels. It also has license … Full NATH analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • ROIC Sustainably Above Peers ROIC at 96.3th percentile exceeds peers and WACC, demonstrating superior capital allocation.
  • Strong Interest Coverage & Conservative Leverage Debt serviceability is strong (score 0.74), with robust interest coverage.

Key risks

  • Revenue Volatility Signals Weak Stickiness Revenue volatility is high (stability score 0.40), suggesting weak customer stickiness.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

Upgrade to unlock the signals and evidence behind each defense.

Premium access

Unlock full defense analysis

Get key signals, strengths, and risks for every moat dimension.

Upgrade to Premium Unlock all moat defenses and evidence.

Pricing Power

Moderate
65

Where NATH ranks in Restaurants

Nathan's Famous, Inc. ranks #12 of 57 scored companies in Restaurants by moat score — the top 21%. The widest moat in the group is Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM) at 83/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near NATH in Restaurants
# Company Moat score Rating
8 Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI 72/100 Moderate
9 Restaurant Brands International QSR 70/100 Moderate
10 Yum China Holdings, Inc. YUMC 70/100 Moderate
11 Texas Roadhouse, Inc. TXRH 69/100 Moderate
12 Nathan's Famous, Inc. NATH 68/100 Moderate
13 Brinker International, Inc. EAT 68/100 Moderate
14 The Cheesecake Factory Incorpor CAKE 67/100 Moderate
15 El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. LOCO 65/100 Moderate
16 Shake Shack, Inc. SHAK 64/100 Moderate

See every General Corporate company ranked by moat score →

How NATH scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 65 · 20% of the moat score

Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.

Cost Advantage

Score 73 · 15% of the moat score

A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.

Customer Stickiness

Score 57 · 15% of the moat score

Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.

Capital Efficiency

Score 77 · 18% of the moat score

Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.

Resilience

Score 78 · 17% of the moat score

Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.

Scale & Market Position

Score 57 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding NATH's moat

What is Nathan's Famous, Inc.'s moat score?

Nathan's Famous, Inc. (NATH) scores 68 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #12 of 57 scored companies in Restaurants, the top 21%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 56 companies in Restaurants. Its strongest defense is Resilience (78/100) and its weakest is Customer Stickiness (57/100).

How does Nathan's Famous, Inc. compare with other Restaurants companies?

Nathan's Famous, Inc. ranks #12 of 57 scored companies in Restaurants by moat score. The widest moat in Restaurants is Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM) at 83/100. The companies ranked closest are Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (TXRH) at 69 just above it and Brinker International, Inc. (EAT) at 68 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 56 companies in Restaurants. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Nathan's Famous, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?

Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Nathan's Famous, Inc.?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and NATH scores: Pricing Power (65), Cost Advantage (73), Customer Stickiness (57), Capital Efficiency (77), Resilience (78), Scale & Market Position (57). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

Send Feedback
Please select a category.
0/1000