First Watch Restaurant price target lowered to $20 from $23 at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler analyst Brian Mullan lowered the firm’s price target on First Watch Restaurant (FWRG) to $20 from $23 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares after the company reported its Q1 results, updated its 2025 guidance, and hosted its call. The headline was First Watch Restaurant lowering its 2025 adjusted EBITDA guidance by 8%, despite leaving its total revenue and same-store sales assumptions for the year intact, the firm says. At a high level, what is going on here is that management is employing strategies to improve recent traffic trends, some of which come with margin percentage degradation; at the same time that food basket costs are unusually elevated, Piper adds.