Panera Bread Premium For Buyout Almost Baked Into Price

Panera Bread Co PNRA shares are trading higher by $38.00 (13 percent) at $312.00 in Wednesday's session.

The company announced it would be acquired for $315 per share by JAB Holdings, a private European company who already owns Keurig Green Mountain and Caribou Coffee. At this time, there seems to be little or no anti-trust concerns as the issue is within $3.00 of the takeout price.

See Also: JAB Buys Panera; Analyst Foresees Near-Term Slowdown In Restaurant M&A

The Street was way out in front of this deal as the issue added over $20.00 on Monday, climbing from Friday's close ($261.87) to $282.63. As the deal didn't immediately materialize and rumored suitors denied any interest, the issue fell $8.63 to $274.00 on Tuesday. Even late buyers that jumped in at today's opening price of $310.96 took only a dime of heat to $310.86 and are now in the green by a dollar.

At this time, Panera's stock has yet to meet the takeover price of $315.00 as $312.98 stands as the high for the session. Perhaps the reason for that being large investors in Panera don't want wait for the closing of the deal and choose to deploy their assets somewhere else.