Toast (NYSE:TOST) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Toast (NYSE:TOST) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on TOST. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Toast from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Toast from $31.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley set a $45.00 target price on Toast in a research report on Friday, May 8th. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Toast from $30.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Toast in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.00.

Toast Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:TOST opened at $35.28 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $18.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.23 and a beta of 1.72. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $31.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.33. Toast has a fifty-two week low of $22.26 and a fifty-two week high of $45.64.

Toast (NYSE:TOST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by ($0.06). Toast had a net margin of 7.14% and a return on equity of 23.90%. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 23.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Toast will post 1 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Toast

In other news, CEO Aman Narang sold 124,542 shares of Toast stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.29, for a total transaction of $4,395,087.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 175,458 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,191,912.82. This trade represents a 41.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Elena Gomez sold 16,176 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.29, for a total transaction of $570,851.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 168,974 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,963,092.46. This represents a 8.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 508,253 shares of company stock worth $17,688,694 in the last quarter. 10.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Toast

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TOST. Arkfeld Wealth Strategies L.L.C. raised its position in shares of Toast by 138.8% in the 2nd quarter. Arkfeld Wealth Strategies L.L.C. now owns 264,821 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,807,000 after acquiring an additional 153,928 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of Toast by 1,925.3% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 985,653 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,001,000 after purchasing an additional 936,987 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Toast by 47.4% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 970,799 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,008,000 after purchasing an additional 312,077 shares in the last quarter. Lavelle Capital LP bought a new stake in Toast during the first quarter valued at about $1,458,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Toast by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,675,056 shares of the company’s stock valued at $307,214,000 after purchasing an additional 169,230 shares during the last quarter. 82.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Toast

Toast, Inc (NYSE: TOST) is a technology company that builds a cloud-based platform for restaurants and other foodservice businesses. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Toast offers integrated point-of-sale (POS) systems and a suite of software and hardware designed to streamline front-of-house and back-of-house operations. The company went public in 2021 and has positioned itself as a vertically integrated provider for the restaurant industry.

Toast’s product portfolio includes touchscreen POS terminals and handheld order-and-pay devices, kitchen display systems, and peripherals tailored for high-volume foodservice environments.