Happy Belly Food GroupHBFG-CSETOP PICKDec 11, 2025Stock price when the opinion was issued
We would be temper our expectations on a name like this. It has had a good run but as a restaurant consolidator is trading at 8X sales. It is small and trades on the CSE which likely adds to volatility. The company does carry a bit of debt as well. In fairness, they are trying to grow quite fast and appear to be signing a lot of franchise deals but restaurants are hard and have low margins so we would prefer to see some execution here as the franchises become operational.
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Incredible job scaling the business. Close to 500 franchises in development, which should take about 3-5 years. About $2-2.5M in revenue per quarter, anticipates a ramp up to ~$4M next year. Lots of faith in CEO -- a passionate and excellent entrepreneur, who's really good at identifying concepts early, buying them cheaply, and building them out.
Valuation not cheap, and that's keeping him out. If you can be patient, you'll be fine with current valuation. But it's already done incredibly well, so may need to base while it backfills the valuation.
"Bet on the jockey, not on the horse." New management increased share price from 10 cents in 2021, today $2. Management gets different incentives for a share price between $3-10. Consumer packaged goods and quick service restaurants. Buys brands and then expands them. Only in certain provinces across Canada, and just went into the US. Now showing up on radar of lots of institutional portfolio managers. No dividend.
(Analysts’ price target is $2.40)