Software stock Toast Inc (NYSE:TOST) is up 1.7% to trade at $35.78 at last check, after scoring an upgrade at J.P. Morgan Securities to "overweight" from "neutral." The analyst in coverage cited expectations of strong growth, as the brokerage favors companies within the payments and fintech space that boast pricing power, strong margins, and 2026 front book velocity.
Coming into today, 12 of the 29 analysts in question called Toast stock a tepid "hold." This means there is still plenty of room for more analysts to move in with upgrades, which would produce additional tailwinds.
TOST is still below its year-to-date breakeven level, and has shed 17.9% over the past 12 months. Today's gains are testing the shares' 50-day moving average, a trendline that contained breakouts in October and November.
Calls have been more popular than usual, per the software stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.52 sits in the 16th percentile of its annual range. Options are also affordably priced, as TOST's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 46% sits higher than just 8% of all other readings from the past year.
