Stephens Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for First Watch Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:FWRG)

First Watch Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:FWRG)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating restated by research analysts at Stephens in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $25.00 price objective on the stock. Stephens’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 17.15% from the stock’s previous close.

FWRG has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Raymond James upped their target price on First Watch Restaurant Group from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. TD Cowen upped their target price on First Watch Restaurant Group from $18.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Barclays upped their target price on First Watch Restaurant Group from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Guggenheim cut their target price on First Watch Restaurant Group from $24.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on First Watch Restaurant Group from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.30.

First Watch Restaurant Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:FWRG opened at $21.34 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a market capitalization of $1.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 0.89. First Watch Restaurant Group has a 12 month low of $12.90 and a 12 month high of $25.98. The business’s 50-day moving average is $19.08 and its 200 day moving average is $17.22.

First Watch Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:FWRG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.05 by ($0.02). First Watch Restaurant Group had a return on equity of 3.61% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company had revenue of $251.61 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $256.17 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.09 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that First Watch Restaurant Group will post 0.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at First Watch Restaurant Group

In other First Watch Restaurant Group news, major shareholder Advent Partners Gpe Viii Limit sold 8,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.76, for a total transaction of $158,080,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 19,189,784 shares in the company, valued at $379,190,131.84. This represents a 29.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 5.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of First Watch Restaurant Group

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FWRG. Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in First Watch Restaurant Group by 180.1% during the third quarter. Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC now owns 6,610 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,000 after buying an additional 4,250 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of First Watch Restaurant Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $119,000. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of First Watch Restaurant Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $157,000. Versor Investments LP purchased a new stake in shares of First Watch Restaurant Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $201,000. Finally, Commerce Bank purchased a new stake in shares of First Watch Restaurant Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $208,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.11% of the company’s stock.

About First Watch Restaurant Group

First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates and franchises restaurants under the First Watch trade name in the United States. The company was formerly known as AI Fresh Super Holdco, Inc and changed its name to First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc in December 2019. First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc was founded in 1983 and is based in Bradenton, Florida.