Insider Selling: Toast (NYSE:TOST) General Counsel Sells 108,000 Shares of Stock

Toast, Inc. (NYSE:TOST) General Counsel Brian Elworthy sold 108,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.89, for a total value of $2,796,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 189,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,909,831.38. The trade was a 36.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Toast Trading Down 4.6%

NYSE TOST traded down $1.26 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $26.40. 16,084,072 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,874,069. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.16. Toast, Inc. has a 1-year low of $22.26 and a 1-year high of $49.66. The firm has a market cap of $13.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.69 and a beta of 1.76.

Toast announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $0.00 in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toast

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital International Investors grew its stake in Toast by 7.4% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,428,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,768,256,000 after acquiring an additional 3,351,545 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Toast by 0.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,764,157 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,634,339,000 after buying an additional 352,435 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Toast by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,157,955 shares of the company’s stock worth $538,259,000 after buying an additional 157,394 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Toast by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,372,626 shares of the company’s stock worth $368,332,000 after buying an additional 653,487 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in Toast by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,820,594 shares of the company’s stock worth $348,729,000 after buying an additional 282,282 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Toast from $36.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen cut Toast from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $35.00 target price on Toast in a research note on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Toast from $40.00 to $34.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $36.00 price objective on shares of Toast in a research note on Friday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.84.

Toast Company Profile

Toast, Inc (NYSE: TOST) is a technology company that builds a cloud-based platform for restaurants and other foodservice businesses. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Toast offers integrated point-of-sale (POS) systems and a suite of software and hardware designed to streamline front-of-house and back-of-house operations. The company went public in 2021 and has positioned itself as a vertically integrated provider for the restaurant industry.

Toast’s product portfolio includes touchscreen POS terminals and handheld order-and-pay devices, kitchen display systems, and peripherals tailored for high-volume foodservice environments.