# Sweetgreen (SG.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/SG

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:31:51.856Z. Financial observations: FY2016–FY2025.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $10.60 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 2 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- negative average operating margin

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 2

- Years with a net loss: 10

- Operating margin variation: 0.69×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -0.19×

- FY2017: -0.19×

- FY2018: 0.04×

- FY2019: -0.26×

- FY2020: -0.64×

- FY2021: -0.40×

- FY2022: -0.41×

- FY2023: -0.21×

- FY2024: -0.14×

- FY2025: -0.16×

### moat: fail

- Years with nonpositive invested capital use equity plus debt and leases; positive earnings with no positive capital are shown above 100%.

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: -14.6%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -32.2%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 1.5 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 16.7%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 15.2%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 1

- Capital spending / revenue: 16.4%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -21.0%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2018: 1.6%

- FY2019: -4.1%

- FY2020: 0.0%

- FY2021: -72.2%

- FY2022: -32.2%

- FY2023: -19.6%

- FY2024: -14.4%

- FY2025: -14.8%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: -$714M

- Net income, five-year total: -$681M

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -5.1 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: -1.8%

Chart: Owner earnings · five years; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: -$153M

- FY2022: -$190M

- FY2023: -$113M

- FY2024: -$90M

- FY2025: -$167M

### management: fail

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- Per-share earnings: -0.59 to -1.01 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 5.6%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 5.6%

- Per-share value change: -$0.42

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$0.59

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: -$1.01

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): -1.00

- Average buyback yield: 0.0%

- Buyback history: 3 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: -$963M

- ROIC, last three-year median: -14.8%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2018: -$0.15

- FY2019: -$0.59

- FY2020: -$1.57

- FY2021: -$2.65

- FY2022: -$1.73

- FY2023: -$1.01

- FY2024: -$0.79

- FY2025: -$1.14

### accounting: pass

- restructuring or one-time charges in at least three of five years

- Sloan accruals: -15.4%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.02×

- Restructuring years, last five: 4

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Accounting red flags: 1

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.11×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2018: -2.1%

- FY2019: -7.9%

- FY2020: -19.1%

- FY2021: -11.6%

- FY2022: -16.2%

- FY2023: -16.3%

- FY2024: -15.6%

- FY2025: -15.4%

## Holders

## Price story

Down 74% since Nov 2024 · "Sweetgreen Cuts Outlook as Lettuce Scare Derails Sales Recovery" (finance.yahoo.com, Aug 2026) · sales +0.4%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:34.347Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2025-08-07: Sweetgreen (NYSE:SG) Misses Q2 Revenue Estimates, Stock Drops 23.3% ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sweetgreen-nyse-sg-misses-q2-212129204.html))

- 2026-02-26: Sweetgreen Sales Fall Despite Price Hikes, Turnaround Efforts ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/m/4e605499-c99e-32f0-8972-f0b48130d8ed/sweetgreen-sales-fall-despite.html))

### Sales · FY2024–2025

sales +0.4%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477815/000162828026012520/sg-20251228.htm; observed 2026-02-27.

- FY2016: $113M 

- FY2017: $171M 

- FY2018: $1.5B 

- FY2019: $274M 

- FY2020: $221M 

- FY2021: $340M 

- FY2022: $470M 

- FY2023: $584M 

- FY2024: $677M 

- FY2025: $679M 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 15.2%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477815/000162828026012520/sg-20251228.htm; observed 2026-02-27.

- FY2016: 27.9% 

- FY2017: 28.3% 

- FY2019: 16.0% 

- FY2021: 11.9% 

- FY2022: 14.7% 

- FY2023: 17.5% 

- FY2024: 19.6% 

- FY2025: 15.2% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in restaurants; annual sales are USD 679.5 million.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477815/000162828026012520/sg-20251228.htm (filed 2026-02-27); FY2025: revenue 679474000; grossProfit 103531000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 15.2% to 19.6% during 2023–25; it lost 14.6% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-27); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 17.5%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-27); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 19.6%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477815/000162828026012520/sg-20251228.htm (filed 2026-02-27); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 15.2%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-27); 10-year return on capital observations [[2018,0.016317605900151286],[2019,-0.041260180386726124],[2020,0],[2021,-0.7222066455803829],[2022,-0.321969535036184],[2023,-0.196342110502131],[2024,-0.14371062535639612],[2025,-0.14825516424688662]]; median -0.14598289480164137. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 1 of 8 years; bought back USD 259000 of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-27); FY2018: growth capex 0; upkeep 0; owner earnings 106000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-27); Dividend observations: [[2018,1600000],[2019,0],[2020,0],[2021,0],[2022,0],[2023,0],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477815/000162828026012520/sg-20251228.htm (filed 2026-02-27); FY2025: cash repurchases 259000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 3.4% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-15); SG.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 3.3840000000000003 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-15.

### What the price says

The price is 1.8 times annual sales; cash earnings are negative.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-27); Closing price 10.6 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 5.760394126072173; price multiple 1.840151866002231. FY2025 cash earnings/share -1.414204441820113. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2021-11: $38.18 per share

- 2021-12: $32.00 per share

- 2022-01: $30.25 per share

- 2022-02: $25.33 per share

- 2022-03: $31.99 per share

- 2022-04: $27.00 per share

- 2022-05: $18.28 per share

- 2022-06: $11.65 per share

- 2022-07: $15.71 per share

- 2022-08: $16.91 per share

- 2022-09: $18.50 per share

- 2022-10: $18.60 per share

- 2022-11: $14.33 per share

- 2022-12: $8.57 per share

- 2023-01: $10.37 per share

- 2023-02: $8.72 per share

- 2023-03: $7.84 per share

- 2023-04: $7.94 per share

- 2023-05: $9.53 per share

- 2023-06: $12.82 per share

- 2023-07: $15.07 per share

- 2023-08: $14.36 per share

- 2023-09: $11.75 per share

- 2023-10: $10.33 per share

- 2023-11: $9.41 per share

- 2023-12: $11.30 per share

- 2024-01: $10.68 per share

- 2024-02: $12.74 per share

- 2024-03: $25.26 per share

- 2024-04: $22.47 per share

- 2024-05: $30.75 per share

- 2024-06: $30.14 per share

- 2024-07: $27.48 per share

- 2024-08: $31.61 per share

- 2024-09: $35.45 per share

- 2024-10: $36.10 per share

- 2024-11: $40.98 per share

- 2024-12: $32.06 per share

- 2025-01: $32.92 per share

- 2025-02: $22.76 per share

- 2025-03: $25.02 per share

- 2025-04: $19.48 per share

- 2025-05: $13.42 per share

- 2025-06: $14.88 per share

- 2025-07: $12.88 per share

- 2025-08: $9.10 per share

- 2025-09: $7.98 per share

- 2025-10: $6.29 per share

- 2025-11: $6.49 per share

- 2025-12: $6.76 per share

- 2026-01: $6.14 per share

- 2026-02: $5.55 per share

- 2026-03: $5.19 per share

- 2026-04: $6.88 per share

- 2026-05: $9.96 per share

- 2026-06: $8.81 per share

- 2026-07: $6.45 per share

- 2026-08: $6.96 per share

- 2026-09: $8.87 per share

- 2026-10: $10.60 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477815/000162828026012520/sg-20251228.htm); period 2025-12-28, filed 2026-02-27.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.