Toast (NYSE:TOST) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Toast, Inc. (NYSE:TOST)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday after Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on the stock from $25.00 to $26.00. The stock had previously closed at $23.73, but opened at $25.18. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a market perform rating on the stock. Toast shares last traded at $26.25, with a volume of 6,618,399 shares traded.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Toast from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Toast from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, March 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Toast from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $23.00 price target on shares of Toast in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of Toast from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Toast currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Stephen Fredette sold 2,272 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.40, for a total transaction of $53,164.80. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 2,835,759 shares in the company, valued at $66,356,760.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CRO Jonathan Vassil sold 50,000 shares of Toast stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.90, for a total value of $1,145,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive now owns 25,422 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $582,163.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President Stephen Fredette sold 2,272 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.40, for a total value of $53,164.80. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 2,835,759 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $66,356,760.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 180,510 shares of company stock worth $4,381,885 in the last ninety days. 13.32% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Toast

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Toast in the first quarter worth $37,000. Baystate Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Toast during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Toast during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Toast in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Cape Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in Toast during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. 82.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toast Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $12.03 billion, a PE ratio of -50.61 and a beta of 1.77. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.52.

Toast (NYSE:TOST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.15). The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Toast had a negative return on equity of 21.77% and a negative net margin of 6.36%. Toast’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.16) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Toast, Inc. will post -0.22 earnings per share for the current year.

About Toast

Toast, Inc operates a cloud-based digital technology platform for the restaurant industry in the United States, Ireland, and India. The company offers software products for restaurant operations and point of sale, such as Toast POS, Toast now, multi-location management, kitchen display system, Toast mobile order and pay, Toast catering and events, Toast invoicing, Toast tables, and restaurant retail; and hardware products, including Toast flex, Toast flex for guest, Toast go 2, Toast tap, kiosks, and Delphi by Toast.