Potbelly Co. (NASDAQ:PBPB) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Potbelly Co. (NASDAQ:PBPB) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the four research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $13.67.

PBPB has been the topic of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Potbelly from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Potbelly in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Benchmark raised Potbelly from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 12th.

Potbelly Stock Performance

Shares of Potbelly stock opened at $10.75 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $12.50 and a 200 day moving average of $10.64. Potbelly has a 12 month low of $7.12 and a 12 month high of $14.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $318.20 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.19 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.70.

Potbelly (NASDAQ:PBPB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02. Potbelly had a return on equity of 50.06% and a net margin of 1.04%. The company had revenue of $125.75 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $125.80 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Potbelly will post 0.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PBPB. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Potbelly by 234.3% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,594,190 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,997,000 after buying an additional 1,117,254 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Potbelly by 34.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,566,193 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,216,000 after buying an additional 405,497 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in Potbelly by 287.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 375,982 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,301,000 after buying an additional 279,046 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Potbelly by 107.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 471,647 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,141,000 after buying an additional 243,827 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Potbelly by 404.3% during the second quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 216,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,898,000 after buying an additional 173,326 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.60% of the company’s stock.

Potbelly Company Profile

Potbelly Corporation, through its subsidiaries, owns, operates, and franchises Potbelly sandwich shops in the United States. The company was formerly known as Potbelly Sandwich Works, Inc and changed its name to Potbelly Corporation in 2002. Potbelly Corporation was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.