Wells Fargo & Company Upgrades Toast (NYSE:TOST) to Strong-Buy

Toast (NYSE:TOST) was upgraded by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on TOST. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of Toast from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Toast from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Toast from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of Toast from $50.00 to $42.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Toast in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.30.

Toast Trading Down 1.1%

TOST stock opened at $38.15 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $39.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.01. The company has a market cap of $19.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.19 and a beta of 1.94. Toast has a 12 month low of $28.12 and a 12 month high of $49.66.

Toast (NYSE:TOST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.52 billion. Toast had a net margin of 4.07% and a return on equity of 14.19%. Toast’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.02 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Toast will post 0.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Toast

In other news, CRO Jonathan Vassil sold 6,530 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.56, for a total transaction of $232,206.80. Following the sale, the executive owned 69,932 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,486,781.92. This represents a 8.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Brian R. Elworthy sold 4,987 shares of Toast stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.56, for a total value of $177,337.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 227,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,104,977.44. This trade represents a 2.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 62,196 shares of company stock worth $2,398,513 over the last 90 days. 12.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Toast

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Toast by 1.1% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,411,722 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,966,995,000 after buying an additional 466,138 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Toast by 17.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 23,454,209 shares of the company’s stock worth $777,978,000 after acquiring an additional 3,490,686 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Toast by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 15,520,360 shares of the company’s stock worth $514,811,000 after acquiring an additional 1,082,958 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Toast by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,212,889 shares of the company’s stock valued at $408,039,000 after purchasing an additional 245,276 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toast by 331.0% in the 2nd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 8,601,887 shares of the company’s stock valued at $380,978,000 after purchasing an additional 6,606,245 shares in the last quarter. 82.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toast Company Profile

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.