Portillo's Stock Surges On Analyst Upgrade, PT Bump: Retail's Excited

Shares of Portillo's Inc. ($PTLO) soared more than 7% on Monday, rising 0.7% in the after-hours session, after the restaurant company got an upgrade from analyst firm Stifel, lifting retail sentiment.

Stifel analyst Chris O'Cull upgraded Portillo's to Buy from Hold with a price target of $16, raising it from $13, Fly.com reported.

According to the analyst, the company has recently boosted efforts to combat weak traffic trends and shown intent to promote value more aggressively.

Stifel has an optimistic view about the company’s new store performance and “the long runway for unit growth,” said the report.

Stifel had downgraded shares of the company based on its assessment of the traffic performance and disappointing third-quarter performance. The company had posted $178.25 million in revenue in Q3, below the $182.07 million that Wall Street analysts expected, according to Stocktwits data.

BofA analyst Sara Senatore also raised the firm's price target to $18 from $16 with a ‘Buy’ rating. According to Fly.com, the firm based its price target bump on new estimates for companies across its restaurant coverage in a Q4 results preview for the group. According to its Black Box industry data, same-store sales growth increased in November from October for all restaurant segments.

Sentiment on Stocktwits improved to ‘bullish’ from ‘bearish’ a day ago. Message volumes moved to ‘high’ from ‘normal.

PTLO sentiment meter and message volumes on Jan 27 as of 8:41 pm ET

 

Message volumes about Portillo’s stock jumped by 9,000% on Stocktwits on Monday.

Wall Street analysts expect the company to post $0.05 in earning per share on revenue of $185.87 million for its fourth-quarter results.

Portillo's stock reached a one-month high on Monday; the stock is up 42.39% year-to-date.

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