Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Sweetgreen, Inc. (NYSE:SG)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Friday after Oppenheimer lowered their price target on the stock from $35.00 to $29.00. The stock had previously closed at $18.17, but opened at $17.09. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Sweetgreen shares last traded at $15.22, with a volume of 2,047,678 shares traded.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. TD Securities lowered their target price on shares of Sweetgreen from $45.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Sweetgreen from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 target price (down previously from $32.00) on shares of Sweetgreen in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Sweetgreen from $24.00 to $22.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of Sweetgreen in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.18.

Insider Activity

In other Sweetgreen news, COO Rossann Williams sold 4,977 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.80, for a total transaction of $118,452.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 95,516 shares in the company, valued at $2,273,280.80. The trade was a 4.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Mitch Reback sold 10,926 shares of Sweetgreen stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.43, for a total value of $288,774.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 344,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,093,373.65. This represents a 3.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 35,852 shares of company stock worth $871,417. Corporate insiders own 21.52% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sweetgreen

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its position in Sweetgreen by 3,571.4% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,028 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Sweetgreen by 156.0% during the 4th quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 1,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 741 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in shares of Sweetgreen by 45.7% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 494 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Sweetgreen by 47.1% during the first quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 1,983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 635 shares during the period. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in Sweetgreen in the fourth quarter worth approximately $53,000. 95.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Sweetgreen Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.80 billion, a P/E ratio of -19.65 and a beta of 2.31. The business has a fifty day moving average of $21.74 and a 200-day moving average of $29.45.

Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.21). Sweetgreen had a negative return on equity of 18.82% and a negative net margin of 13.27%. The business had revenue of $166.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $164.68 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.23) earnings per share. Sweetgreen’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Sweetgreen, Inc. will post -0.74 EPS for the current year.

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.