Morgan Stanley Increases Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) Price Target to $16.00

Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) had its price objective upped by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $11.00 to $16.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “underweight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential downside of 29.76% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Sweetgreen from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Sweetgreen from $17.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Sweetgreen from $13.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on shares of Sweetgreen in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Sweetgreen from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sweetgreen presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.50.

Sweetgreen Price Performance

SG stock traded down $0.66 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $22.78. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 411,441 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,225,308. Sweetgreen has a twelve month low of $7.25 and a twelve month high of $26.45. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $18.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $13.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, a P/E ratio of -22.78 and a beta of 2.20.

Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported ($0.24) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $153.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $152.04 million. Sweetgreen had a negative return on equity of 21.58% and a negative net margin of 19.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.44) earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Sweetgreen will post -0.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Sweetgreen

In other news, CEO Jonathan Neman sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.47, for a total value of $52,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,100,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,987,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Adrienne Gemperle sold 4,286 shares of Sweetgreen stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.32, for a total value of $52,803.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 139,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,721,017.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jonathan Neman sold 5,000 shares of Sweetgreen stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.47, for a total value of $52,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,987,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 145,555 shares of company stock worth $2,266,739. Corporate insiders own 22.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Sweetgreen by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,126,030 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,481,000 after buying an additional 245,255 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky grew its stake in shares of Sweetgreen by 100.8% in the 3rd quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 298,585 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,508,000 after buying an additional 149,871 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Sweetgreen by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,810,112 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,019,000 after buying an additional 84,375 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its stake in shares of Sweetgreen by 139.9% in the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 216,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,539,000 after buying an additional 126,026 shares during the period. Finally, Essex Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sweetgreen in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,749,000. 95.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Sweetgreen Company Profile

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.