First Watch Restaurant Group’s (FWRG) “Overweight” Rating Reaffirmed at Stephens

First Watch Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:FWRG)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by analysts at Stephens in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $24.00 price target on the stock. Stephens’ price objective suggests a potential upside of 45.90% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of First Watch Restaurant Group from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating on shares of First Watch Restaurant Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. TD Securities reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of First Watch Restaurant Group in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $21.00 target price on First Watch Restaurant Group in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $21.00 price target (down from $24.00) on shares of First Watch Restaurant Group in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.27.

First Watch Restaurant Group Trading Down 1.3 %

NASDAQ:FWRG opened at $16.45 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $998.52 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.91. First Watch Restaurant Group has a 1-year low of $12.90 and a 1-year high of $25.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

First Watch Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:FWRG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, March 11th. The company reported $0.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.02 by ($0.01). First Watch Restaurant Group had a return on equity of 3.61% and a net margin of 2.09%. The firm had revenue of $263.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $262.82 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.04 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that First Watch Restaurant Group will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at First Watch Restaurant Group

In other news, CEO Christopher Anthony Tomasso sold 42,039 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.81, for a total transaction of $706,675.59. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 389,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,553,075.92. This represents a 9.73 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jay Anthony Wolszczak sold 5,743 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.81, for a total transaction of $96,539.83. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 37,768 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $634,880.08. The trade was a 13.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 5.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of First Watch Restaurant Group

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of First Watch Restaurant Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,095,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its position in First Watch Restaurant Group by 59.0% in the 4th quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,582,303 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,057,000 after purchasing an additional 958,417 shares during the last quarter. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of First Watch Restaurant Group during the 4th quarter worth about $15,506,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of First Watch Restaurant Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $12,732,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in First Watch Restaurant Group by 25.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,351,614 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,764,000 after buying an additional 479,741 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.11% of the company’s stock.

About First Watch Restaurant Group

First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates and franchises restaurants under the First Watch trade name in the United States. The company was formerly known as AI Fresh Super Holdco, Inc and changed its name to First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc in December 2019. First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc was founded in 1983 and is based in Bradenton, Florida.