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

Toast (NYSE:TOST) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on TOST. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Toast from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Toast from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Toast from $31.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Toast from $34.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $40.00 target price on shares of Toast in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.00.

Toast Stock Performance

Shares of TOST stock opened at $35.28 on Friday. Toast has a 52-week low of $22.26 and a 52-week high of $45.64. The company has a market capitalization of $18.13 billion, a PE ratio of 45.23 and a beta of 1.72. The business’s fifty day moving average is $31.57 and its 200 day moving average is $28.33.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Toast

In other Toast news, CFO Elena Gomez sold 5,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.37, for a total transaction of $203,766.57. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 160,150 shares in the company, valued at $5,664,505.50. This trade represents a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CRO Jonathan Vassil sold 85,280 shares of Toast stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.34, for a total value of $3,099,075.20. Following the sale, the executive directly owned 69,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,542,564.44. This trade represents a 54.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 508,253 shares of company stock worth $17,688,694 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 10.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Toast

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bayban bought a new position in Toast during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. SHP Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Toast during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Strive Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Toast in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Ancora Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Toast in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Silicon Valley Capital Partners bought a new stake in shares of Toast in the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Institutional investors own 82.91% of the company’s stock.

Toast Company Profile

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.