Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 42,865 Shares of Toast, Inc. $TOST

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in Toast, Inc. (NYSE:TOST) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,866,235 shares of the company’s stock after selling 42,865 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 1.14% of Toast worth $208,311,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of TOST. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Toast by 1,555.5% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 17,432 shares of the company’s stock worth $578,000 after purchasing an additional 16,379 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in Toast by 24.0% in the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 81,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,613,000 after purchasing an additional 15,774 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Toast by 2.7% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,212,889 shares of the company’s stock worth $408,039,000 after purchasing an additional 245,276 shares in the last quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC bought a new position in Toast in the second quarter worth about $4,479,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in Toast by 24.6% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,030,007 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,619,000 after purchasing an additional 203,404 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on TOST. UBS Group set a $40.00 target price on shares of Toast in a report on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial set a $36.00 price objective on Toast in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Wolfe Research lowered Toast from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $35.00 price objective on Toast in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Evercore upgraded Toast from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $39.48.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Elena Gomez sold 8,929 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.19, for a total value of $233,850.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 173,064 shares in the company, valued at $4,532,546.16. This trade represents a 4.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CRO Jonathan Vassil sold 6,438 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.19, for a total value of $168,611.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive owned 146,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,839,925.42. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 39,783 shares of company stock worth $1,041,917 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 12.14% of the company’s stock.

Toast Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of Toast stock opened at $28.54 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.86 and a beta of 1.81. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $27.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.89. Toast, Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.35 and a 52 week high of $49.66.

Toast (NYSE:TOST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.62 billion. Toast had a net margin of 5.56% and a return on equity of 18.14%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.05 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Toast, Inc. will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toast declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $0.00 in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

About Toast

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.