Toast, Inc. (TOST) Stock Price & How to Invest

Toast is a Boston company that sells restaurants one system to run the whole operation on: cloud point-of-sale software, kitchen displays, Toast Go handheld terminals, digital ordering, payroll, and lending products aimed at operators. Revenue arrives in three streams that are really three different businesses. Financial technology solutions, which is payment processing, was ~$1.57 billion of the ~$1.91 billion Toast booked in the second quarter of 2026, yet carried only ~$359 million of gross profit, because most of that line is interchange and network fees the company never keeps. Subscription services were ~$290 million and produced ~$226 million of gross profit, a margin near ~78%. Hardware and professional services brought in ~$48 million against ~$116 million of cost, which is to say Toast sells terminals below cost on purpose to win the payment flow that follows. The platform reached ~180,000 locations as of June 30, 2026, up ~22% year over year, processed ~$60.7 billion of payment volume in the quarter, and employed ~6,500 people at the end of 2025.

The financial character of the company changed over the past two years: Toast lost money for most of its public life and no longer does. Operating income was ~$152 million in the second quarter of 2026 against ~$80 million a year earlier, net income was ~$154 million, and trailing twelve-month net income sits near ~$486 million on ~$6.80 billion of trailing revenue. Annualized recurring run-rate, the company's own scale measure, grew ~25% to ~$2.4 billion as of June 30, 2026. Management guides full-year 2026 recurring gross profit to ~$2.33 billion to ~$2.36 billion and adjusted EBITDA to ~$805 million to ~$825 million. At a ~$21.3 billion market value the stock sits near ~3.1 times trailing revenue, which reads cheap for a ~23% grower until the pass-through card costs are stripped out: against ~$1.82 billion of trailing gross profit the multiple is closer to ~12 times, and against trailing net income roughly ~44 times. The question that decides the outcome is whether Toast can keep adding something like ~9,000 net locations a quarter while pushing higher-margin software into the installed base, because payments revenue alone grows with restaurant sales and card volume, and that pace on its own does not support the current price.

The clearest specific risk is regulatory. Toast has been responding to a Federal Trade Commission Civil Investigative Demand received in June 2025 covering the marketing, sale, and operation of its restaurant systems and customer-service offerings, and in June 2026 the FTC staff sent the company a draft complaint and a proposed settlement order. Toast says it disagrees and is prepared to litigate, and states in its filings that it cannot estimate a reasonably possible loss, so the exposure is genuinely unquantified. Beyond that, ~82% of revenue tracks payment volume, which moves with restaurant traffic and discretionary dining spend, and price pressure on processing spreads from Block's Square, Fiserv's Clover, or Shift4 would compress the part of the business funding everything else. Governance is concentrated: Class B shares carry ten votes each, so ~65 million shares, around ~11% of the total, control a majority of the voting power.

26 analysts publish price targets on TOST, averaging $38.73 against a $36.80 price as of August 2026, or +5.2%. The published targets run from $25.00 to $45.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 21 buy, 9 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 12 raises and 0 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full TOST forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Toast, Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. Location adds, plus the retail and international extension. Toast added ~9,500 net new locations in the second quarter of 2026, a record for the company, taking the installed base to ~180,000 from ~164,000 at the end of 2025. The most optimistic published target, $45.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The clearest specific risk is regulatory. The most pessimistic target, $25.00, is roughly what TOST is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on TOST, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Toast, Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$6.80 billion, up ~23% year over year in Q2 2026
• Gross profit (TTM): ~$1.82 billion, a margin near ~27%
• ARR (June 30, 2026): ~$2.4 billion, up ~25% year over year
• Net income (TTM): ~$486 million; Q2 2026 diluted EPS ~$0.26
• Market capitalization: ~$21.3 billion across ~577 million Class A and Class B shares
• Scale metrics: ~180,000 locations; ~$60.7 billion of payment volume processed in Q2 2026

Quoting a revenue multiple on Toast flatters it, because ~82% of the revenue line is payment processing that arrives with interchange and network fees already attached. Gross profit and ARR are the honest scale measures: ~$21.3 billion against ~$1.82 billion of trailing gross profit is roughly ~12 times, and against the ~$2.4 billion ARR figure roughly ~8.9 times. Management's own 2026 guidance is written in recurring gross profit and adjusted EBITDA for the same reason.

If you want TOST exposure as part of a larger bundle rather than directly, these ETFs hold it meaningfully. Weights are approximate and refresh quarterly.

Other names that sit close to TOST: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get TOST exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it (IPAY), which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so TOST sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where TOST fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

Toast has become a genuinely profitable payments business using restaurant software as its distribution, and the ~$21.3 billion market value rests on location growth and software attach continuing while an unresolved FTC matter stays contained.

Whether TOST is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is TOST a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the TOST stock forecast.

For income investors, whether TOST pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does TOST pay a dividend? And to weigh TOST against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: TOST vs FISV and TOST vs LSPD.