May 3, 2023 – Westpac Banking Corp has announced the acquisition of a new stake in Toast, Inc. (NYSE:TOST), according to recent disclosures with the SEC. The global banking institution’s fund purchased almost 18,000 shares of Toast’s stock worth over $322,000 during the company’s fourth quarter.
Toast, Inc. is an American-based restaurant technology company that operates a cloud-based and digital technology platform for the foodservice industry in the United States and Ireland. Toast supports both small independent restaurants and large upscale establishments alike in streamlining their operations and improving their customer experience with a suite of hardware and software products.
Toast offers various payment solutions such as Toast Point of Sale (POS) – their signature hardware product allowing for contactless payment and inventory management, which assists with foodservice establishment operations by increasing efficiency. The company also provides Toast Order & Pay, allowing mobile devices to order and pay directly from within day-to-day routines or on-the-move.
The rise-of-profit establishment had previously announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 16th where the corporation shared its yearly yields amid higher revenue than expected yet lower revenue projections for next year due to COVID-19’s after-effects on consumer spending patterns in the foodservice industry globally. For now, analysts expect that Toast will post -$0.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.
In conclusion, Westpac Banking Corp’s acquisition decision can be related to current fluctuations happening in the market while being balancing decisions between profitability and a low-risk strategy; Keeping investments focused on businesses like Toast who can offer earnings consistency while benefiting from broader trends impacting foodservice technology markets is viewed as one key strategy towards success in unpredictable times such as we face currently.
Toast, Inc.: Institutional Investment Growth and Profitability Potential
Toast, Inc. has been making headlines as hedge funds and other institutional investors increase their holdings in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased an additional 19,557 shares during the last quarter, increasing their holdings by 214.5%. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new position in Toast, worth $3,453,000 in the third quarter of last year while Amalgamated Bank grew its stake by 10.6% during the same period to own 55,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $932,000 after acquiring an additional 5,326 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. also grew its stake while DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in shares of Toast positioning themselves for long-term growth and profitability.
Shares of TOST opened at $17.22 on Wednesday showing signs of a fluctuation from a high of $26.03 to a low of $11.91 over the past year giving them a market cap of $9.07 billion and a beta rating of 1.74 meaning they are highly volatile compared to the market average.
Despite this volatility, Toast is poised for growth with its cloud-based digital platform that offers Point-of-Sale (POS) services to thousands of restaurants in Ireland and the United States as well as Order & Pay services through mobile devices via Toast Flex and handheld POS device Toast Go.
Toast has been receiving excellent ratings from analysts and independent equity firms such as Needham & Company LLC who hold Toast’s ratings at “Buy”. Nine analysts have rated TOST as “hold” with eight giving it a buy rating and Bloomberg.com gives TOST an average target price of $22.76.
In terms of insider activity on shares sold since February 14th COO Aman Narang alone has sold 105,000 shares selling at an average price of $25.28, for a total of $2,654,400.00 while James Michael Matlock sold 6,310 shares of the stock on February 3rd at an average price of $23.89 earning $150,745.90.
With growing institutional investment and excellent research ratings with bullish opinions from equity firms Toast looks to be a strong buy for those looking to invest in the restaurant tech industry.
