Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) Upgraded to Buy at TD Cowen

TD Cowen upgraded shares of Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $43.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $31.00.

SG has been the subject of several other reports. William Blair reissued an outperform rating on shares of Sweetgreen in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Sweetgreen from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Sweetgreen from $35.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Sweetgreen from $32.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Sweetgreen from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $38.20.

Sweetgreen Stock Performance

NYSE SG opened at $29.85 on Wednesday. Sweetgreen has a 52-week low of $8.64 and a 52-week high of $38.53. The company has a market capitalization of $3.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -32.10 and a beta of 2.32. The company has a fifty day moving average of $29.15 and a 200-day moving average of $26.25.

Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by ($0.02). Sweetgreen had a negative return on equity of 19.34% and a negative net margin of 14.33%. The company had revenue of $184.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.79 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.20) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 21.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Sweetgreen will post -0.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Wouleta Ayele sold 2,831 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.31, for a total value of $102,793.61. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 144,649 shares in the company, valued at $5,252,205.19. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Adrienne Gemperle sold 3,868 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.31, for a total value of $140,447.08. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 114,842 shares in the company, valued at $4,169,913.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Wouleta Ayele sold 2,831 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.31, for a total transaction of $102,793.61. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 144,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,252,205.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 371,116 shares of company stock worth $13,248,867. 21.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Sweetgreen by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 731,369 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,264,000 after acquiring an additional 15,463 shares during the period. Summit Place Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Sweetgreen by 25.6% in the fourth quarter. Summit Place Financial Advisors LLC now owns 65,090 shares of the company’s stock worth $736,000 after acquiring an additional 13,260 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Sweetgreen by 38.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,729,983 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,549,000 after acquiring an additional 476,998 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Sweetgreen by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 182,254 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,059,000 after acquiring an additional 1,733 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position in Sweetgreen by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 108,311 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,224,000 after acquiring an additional 1,987 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.75% of the company’s stock.

About Sweetgreen

Sweetgreen, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates fast food restaurants serving healthy foods at scale in the United States. The company also accepts orders through its online and mobile ordering platforms, as well as sells gift cards that do not have an expiration date and can be redeemed. The company was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.