Toast

Toast more than doubled its profit in a single quarter, jumping from 56 million dollars a year ago to 126 million dollars. Operating income soared from 43 million to 110 million, proof that as more restaurants sign on, more of every new dollar drops straight to the bottom line.

Toast added roughly 7,000 net new restaurants in just three months and now serves about 171,000 locations, up 22% from last year. Recurring revenue is running at a 2.2 billion dollar annual pace, and the company is bumping up its full-year profit forecast to as much as 810 million dollars.

Toast still battles deep-pocketed rivals like Block's Square, Fiserv's Clover, and Lightspeed for restaurant business. With net margins at just 5.56%, there is not much cushion if a competitor decides to slash prices or copy Toast's new AI features.

Most of Toast's money still comes from a cut of the 51.3 billion dollars in payments flowing across its system each quarter. If shoppers eat out less during a downturn, that swipe-fee engine slows fast, and the stock's high beta of 1.82 means it tends to swing harder than the broader market.