GrubHub Inc. (GRUB) is an online and mobile food ordering company. The Company's platform assists diners in searching for a local restaurant, tracking the order and re-order for convenience. It operates within the United States and the United Kingdom. GrubHub Inc. is based in United States.

In the world of "disruptive" companies, we find numerous models similar to Uber. GrubHub is one such company. Like Uber, the company provides a transportation-based service. But here, the company delivers food to consumers who use an app to order online while skipping the "old school" delivery employee of the restaurant in favor of the "independent contractor" who just so happens to deliver food for GrubHub.

This stock has been on fire, and our BUY and STRONG BUY ratings were prescient. Last Wednesday, shares soared more than 23% as the underlying financials and company news continued to impress analysts and investors.

Despite operating in a space with numerous competitors--including the aforementioned Uber via its UberEats service, GrubHub has continued to post great earnings. For the second quarter, the Company posted revenues of $240 million, which is a 51% year-over-year increase from $159 million in the second quarter of 2017. Gross Food Sales grew 39% year-over-year to $1.2 billion, up from $880 million in the year ago period. Grubhub also announced it entered into an agreement to acquire Boston-based Level-Up--the leader in mobile diner engagement and payment solutions for national and regional restaurant brands.

Grubhub's founder and chief executive officer Matt Maloney noted that GrubHub "had a standout quarter, highlighted by a record number of new diners trying Grubhub for the first time. We generated robust order growth, while continuing our rapid delivery expansion and adding thousands of high-quality new restaurant partners."

In addition to gross food sales in excess of $1 billion quarterly and revenue-growth rates in excess of 40% for the last three quarters, GrubHub keeps inking deals with powerful players in fast food. They recently signed an agreement with Yum! brands. This deal gives the company access to huge outlets like Taco Bell Pizza Hut, and KFC. This means that the company has more than 85,000 restaurant partners.

Of course, all is not rosy for the "gig economy" players. There are a variety of cases working their way through the court system which seek to challenge this particular business model. We could see--depending on the various outcomes--courts decide that delivery people are really "employees" rather than "independent contractors" and thus subject to labor laws such as overtime pay requirements, health care coverage, unemployment insurance, etc. That would really crimp the bottom line for GrubHub, Uber, and others.

Recommendation: We continue our STRONG BUY recommendation on GRUBHUB INC for 2018-07-27. Based on the information we have gathered and our resulting research, we feel that GRUBHUB INC has the probability to OUTPERFORM average market performance for the next year. The company exhibits ATTRACTIVE Momentum and Company Size.

Valuation & Rankings
Valuation	57.07% overvalued	Valuation Rank	6
1-M Forecast Return	1.19%	1-M Forecast Return Rank	100
12-M Return	178.78%	Momentum Rank	99
Sharpe Ratio	0.72	Sharpe Ratio Rank	85
5-Y Avg Annual Return	29.30%	5-Y Avg Annual Rtn Rank	95
Volatility	40.59%	Volatility Rank	39
Expected EPS Growth	18.25%	EPS Growth Rank	50
Market Cap (billions)	10.68	Size Rank	89
Trailing P/E Ratio	95.62	Trailing P/E Rank	33
Forward P/E Ratio	80.86	Forward P/E Ratio Rank	4
PEG Ratio	5.24	PEG Ratio Rank	6
Price/Sales	14.06	Price/Sales Rank	10
Market/Book	168.59	Market/Book Rank	2
Beta	1.12	Beta Rank	30
Alpha	0.75	Alpha Rank	96