Cava Group Shares Are Climbing Today: What's Going On?

CAVA Group Inc CAVA shares are trading higher Wednesday after the company reported better-than-expected financial results. Multiple analysts raised price targets on the stock following the print.

What Happened: In its first quarter as a public company, Cava beat analyst expectations on the top and bottom line. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $172.89 million, which beat the consensus estimates of $163.2 million. Cava reported quarterly earnings of 21 cents per share, which beat estimates for a loss of 3 cents per share.

Cava reported same restaurant sales growth of 18.2%. The company also opened 16 new restaurants during the quarter, bringing total locations up to 279. 

"Our dominant leadership position and proven portability create meaningful opportunity for growth in new and existing markets, as evidenced by our 16 Net New Cava Restaurant Openings during the quarter," said Brett Schulman, co-founder and CEO of Cava.

"Our performance is representative of the momentum we've gained and continued focus on execution as we grow."

Cava expects to open between 65 and 70 new restaurants this year. The company anticipates same restaurant sales growth of 13% to 15%. Full-year adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $62 million to $67 million.

See Also: Target Stock Soars On Q2 Earnings: Higher Margins, Lower Inventory And More

Analyst Assessment:

• Baird analyst David Tarantino maintained Cava with an Outperform and raised the price target from $50 to $58.
• Stifel analyst Chris O'Cull maintained Cava with a Buy and raised the price target from $48 to $55.
• Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Harbour maintained Cava with an Equal-Weight and raised the price target from $43 to $45.

CAVA Price Action: Cava shares were up 1.79% at $47.22 at the time of writing, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: courtesy of Cava.