Toast: CEO Transition Shouldn't Alter Roadmap; We Maintain Standard Capital Allocation Rating

Narrow-moat Toast announced on Sept. 5 that CEO Chris Comparato will step down from both his executive and chairman responsibilities on Jan. 1, 2024, in a detail-light news release. He will be replaced as CEO by Aman Narang, one of Toast's co-founders, who has been extremely hands-on in a suite of cross-functional roles spanning marketing, sales, business development, relationship management, fintech, and operations, per Restaurant Business, and has worked with the company since co-founding it in 2011. Mark Hawkins, the former Salesforce co-CEO and the leading independent member of the board, will step into the chairman role. We don't anticipate making any changes to our Standard capital allocation rating or our $21 fair value estimate in response to the move and view shares as fairly priced.