Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) Hits New 52-Week Low After Analyst Downgrade

Sweetgreen, Inc. (NYSE:SG) shares hit a new 52-week low during trading on Saturday after Oppenheimer lowered their price target on the stock from $35.00 to $29.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Sweetgreen traded as low as $14.61 and last traded at $15.33, with a volume of 19041978 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $18.17.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on SG. TD Securities lowered their price objective on Sweetgreen from $45.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective (down from $32.00) on shares of Sweetgreen in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Sweetgreen from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 price target on shares of Sweetgreen in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Sweetgreen from $27.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Nathaniel Ru sold 2,123 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.80, for a total transaction of $50,527.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,785,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,485,356.20. This trade represents a 0.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Mitch Reback sold 4,000 shares of Sweetgreen stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.07, for a total transaction of $84,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 344,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,258,804.63. This represents a 1.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 35,852 shares of company stock valued at $871,417 in the last ninety days. 21.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sweetgreen

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Blair William & Co. IL raised its stake in shares of Sweetgreen by 58.3% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 116,776 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,922,000 after purchasing an additional 42,988 shares during the last quarter. Generali Investments Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych raised its position in Sweetgreen by 70.8% in the 1st quarter. Generali Investments Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych now owns 4,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,000 after buying an additional 1,700 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in Sweetgreen during the 1st quarter valued at $852,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in Sweetgreen by 9.5% during the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 29,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $728,000 after acquiring an additional 2,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its stake in shares of Sweetgreen by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 11,707,090 shares of the company’s stock worth $292,911,000 after acquiring an additional 386,141 shares in the last quarter. 95.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Sweetgreen Price Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $21.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.50. The company has a market cap of $1.80 billion, a PE ratio of -19.65 and a beta of 2.31.

Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.21). The firm had revenue of $166.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $164.68 million. Sweetgreen had a negative return on equity of 18.82% and a negative net margin of 13.27%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.23) EPS. On average, analysts forecast 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.