Shake Shack soars in trading, valued at a massive premium to fast casual peers

As expected with such high investor demand, Shake Shack’s stock skyrocketed 119% in first-day trading, making it the latest fast-casual IPO with very-strong first-day demand. Over the last two years, the other five fast-casual IPOs (HABT, LOCO, ZOES, PBPB, NDLS) had an average first-day pop of 95%.

At its $45.90 closing share price, the company now commands a $1.7 billion market cap, putting its valuation relative to 2014 sales at a massive premium to other fast casual peers. We have included a chart below to show how this stacks up to two other high growth fast-casual concepts, Habit Restaurants (HABT) and Zoe’s Kitchen (ZOES), as well as the fast casual leader Chipotle (CMG).