Wells Fargo & Company Initiates Coverage on Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG)

Research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set an “overweight” rating and a $19.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target points to a potential upside of 55.38% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on SG. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Sweetgreen from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Sweetgreen from $35.00 to $29.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 price target on shares of Sweetgreen in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Sweetgreen from $25.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on Sweetgreen from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.31.

Sweetgreen Stock Down 3.3%

Shares of NYSE:SG opened at $12.23 on Monday. Sweetgreen has a fifty-two week low of $12.16 and a fifty-two week high of $45.12. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.73. The company has a market cap of $1.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.88 and a beta of 2.06.

Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.21) EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.21). Sweetgreen had a negative return on equity of 19.72% and a negative net margin of 13.04%. The business had revenue of $166.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $164.68 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.23) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Sweetgreen will post -0.74 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Clifford Burrows acquired 19,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $13.11 per share, with a total value of $251,712.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 19,200 shares in the company, valued at $251,712. The trade was a ∞ increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Mitch Reback sold 10,088 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.23, for a total transaction of $153,640.24. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 334,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,093,231.83. The trade was a 2.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 21.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sweetgreen

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SG. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in Sweetgreen by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 10,479 shares of the company’s stock worth $336,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in Sweetgreen by 45.7% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,574 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 494 shares in the last quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Sweetgreen by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 50,164 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,608,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. Oberweis Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Sweetgreen by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Oberweis Asset Management Inc. now owns 96,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,084,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the period. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in shares of Sweetgreen by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 29,535 shares of the company’s stock worth $947,000 after acquiring an additional 613 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.