Sweetgreen Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:SG)

Key Points

• Sweetgreen experienced a significant surge in put options trading, with 33,370 contracts purchased, reflecting a 166% increase over the average daily volume.
• Several analysts have lowered their price targets for Sweetgreen, with UBS reducing its target from $19.00 to $13.00 and TD Cowen from $15.00 to $10.00.
• Sweetgreen reported a loss of ($0.20) EPS for the last quarter, missing consensus estimates and indicating a year-over-year revenue increase of only 0.5%.

Sweetgreen, Inc. (NYSE:SG - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors acquired 33,370 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 166% compared to the average volume of 12,539 put options.

Sweetgreen Trading Down 2.1%

SG traded down $0.18 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $8.51. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,180,894 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,406,176. Sweetgreen has a 12 month low of $8.11 and a 12 month high of $45.12. The stock has a market cap of $1.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.13 and a beta of 2.01. The business's 50-day moving average price is $11.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.86.

Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.12) by ($0.08). Sweetgreen had a negative net margin of 14.29% and a negative return on equity of 22.21%. The firm had revenue of $185.58 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $193.47 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.13) EPS. The company's revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. Sweetgreen has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Sweetgreen will post -0.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sweetgreen news, CFO Mitch Reback sold 11,530 shares of Sweetgreen stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.19, for a total transaction of $105,960.70. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 322,891 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,967,368.29. The trade was a 3.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 19.78% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its position in Sweetgreen by 3.4% during the first quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 11,707,090 shares of the company's stock valued at $292,911,000 after acquiring an additional 386,141 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Sweetgreen by 30.0% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,762,598 shares of the company's stock valued at $144,180,000 after acquiring an additional 1,330,094 shares during the last quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Sweetgreen by 29.5% in the first quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 4,525,109 shares of the company's stock worth $113,218,000 after purchasing an additional 1,030,176 shares during the last quarter. Spyglass Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sweetgreen by 15.2% in the second quarter. Spyglass Capital Management LLC now owns 3,899,813 shares of the company's stock worth $58,029,000 after purchasing an additional 513,643 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sweetgreen by 89.5% in the second quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 2,567,526 shares of the company's stock worth $38,205,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,708 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.75% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Sweetgreen from $15.00 to $10.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 8th. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Sweetgreen in a report on Friday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Sweetgreen from $22.00 to $17.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 14th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Sweetgreen from $27.00 to $22.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 18th. Finally, TD Securities reissued a "hold" rating and issued a $15.00 target price (down previously from $25.00) on shares of Sweetgreen in a report on Tuesday, July 1st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $17.69.

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.