Cava Stock: Buy or Sell After the Cava IPO?

Cava stock began trading on June 15th, 2023, at 11:44 am ET. The Cava IPO price was $22 per share, above the stated range of $19-$20.

Trading opened at $42, giving investors who received IPO access an immediate $20 or 91% gain. The Cava stock symbol is “CAVA“. 

Buy post-IPO stocks with any online broker. 

The online broker Webull accepted IPO orders the week before the IPO but closed the offering by the morning of June 14th. Sign up and fund your Webull account today so you can take advantage of the next opportunity.

*** Congratulations if you received IPO shares at $22. Enjoy your profits (sell when you can). But don’t chase this stock in to the 30s or 40s. It is highly overvalued at those levels and will eventually fall.***

If you’re a Cava Rewards member and received access to the IPO, please contact me or leave a comment below. We have yet to confirm if members were invited to participate. 

Bookmark this page for everything related to the Cava IPO (updated multiple times a day).

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Latest Cava Stock IPO News

08/15/2023: Cava shares surge as chain swings to a profit
06/15/2023: OPENING TRADE $42 at 11:44am. 
06/14/2023: CAVA IPO price: $22 per share. 
06/14/2023: Analysis: CAVA IPO Gets More Expensive
06/14/2023: Cava IPO to Set IPO Price This Evening
06/12/2023: Cava IPO Price Range Increased to $19-$20
06/09/2023: Cava IPO Access Available on Webull
06/05/2023: Cava Amends S-1 Filing, sets IPO terms
06/04/2023: Roadshow Presentation
06/04/2023: WSJ: Restaurant Chain Cava Set to Launch IPO
05/25/2023: IPO Analysis: Don’t Bailout This IPO ‘CAVAstrophe’
05/23/2023: Cava’s listing won’t bring back IPOs
05/19/2023: Cava reveals 2022 revenue jump in U.S. IPO filing
05/19/2023: CAVA IPO S-1 FILING RELEASED TO PUBLIC
Older news…

What is Cava?

Cava is a Mediterranean restaurant chain that launched its first restaurant in Bethesda, MD, in 2011. Founded by three first-generation Greek friends, Cava has grown to more than 133 restaurants in the U.S.

Cava Group, the parent company, also owns Zoe’s Kitchen, which has more than 250 locations in the United States.

The company built its menu, customer experience, and brand inspired by Chipotle, using fresh ingredients, fair and sustainable sourcing, and a commitment to its workers and customers. 

Our mission is to bring heart, health, and humanity to food. We believe in: Serving delicious food that helps more people eat well and live well. Taking care of the people and things that feed us: the earth, farmers, purveyors, and team members. Food is a unifier for a more diverse yet inclusive world where all are welcome.

Your author’s favorite dish is the Chicken + RightRice, a bowl built on a base of high-protein RightRice (a rice alternative made from lentil, pea, and chickpea flours) with grilled chicken, tzatziki, hummus, feta, tomato, arugula, Persian cucumber, and a delicious Greek vinaigrette.

Cava also sells branded dips, spreads, and dressings at select Whole Foods Market, Safeway, MOM’s Organic Market, Balducci’s, and local independent markets.

The company’s headquarters are in Washington, D.C. 

Here’s a video to give a taste of what the food and eating experience is like:

Is Cava Publicly Traded?

Yes!

When was the Cava IPO Date?

The Cava IPO date was June 15th, 2023. The stock began trading at 11:44 am ET. 

Cava Group released its S-1 filing on May 19th, 2023, after filing confidentially for an IPO with the SEC on February 6th, 2023. An amended version was released on June 5th. See below. 

The company began its IPO roadshow on Tuesday, June 6th.

What Time Did the Cava IPO Start Trading?

The Cava IPO began trading at 11:44 am ET.

IPOs start trading when the underwriters complete “price discovery” to find an opening trade price. Several factors affect this process, impacting the time of the first trade.

Our analysis of high-demand IPOs found that well-known brands such as Cava typically start trading in the late morning or early afternoon.

Read more: What time do IPOs start trading?

Cava IPO Terms

• Common Stock Offered: 14,444,444 Shares
• IPO Price: $22 (updated 06/14)
• IPO Date: Thursday, June 15th, 2023
• Cava Stock Symbol: CAVA
• Valuation: $2.45 billion
• Raise: $318 million
• Opening Trade: $42

Cava IPO S-1 Filing?

Cava submitted a confidential S-1 filing to the SEC in February 2023. The SEC qualified the filing and released it to the public on May 19th, 2023.

The version below is the May 19th filing. Amended versions were published on June 5th and June 12th. Monitor the SEC website or our IPO feed for additional amended versions. 

Read the Cava S-1 filing below:

What is the Cava Stock Symbol? Cava Ticker?

The Cava stock symbol will be “CAVA“. 

What is the Cava Stock Price?

The Cava IPO price was $22. This amount is above the stated range of $19-$20. 

The latest Cava stock price is below. 

Who Owns Cava?

Cava is a public company owned by its shareholders.

Pre-IPO equity owners included founders, employees, and multiple venture capital firms.

The company raised about $814 million between 2015 and before the IPO. The IPO raised an additional $318 million. 

The last confirmed private funding round, a Series F, was completed in April 2021, raising $190 million.

Prominent venture capital investors before the IPO included Declaration Partners, Equilibra Partners, The  Invus Group, Lighthouse Investment Partners, Revolution (Steve Case of AOL), SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, and T. Rowe Price.

Venture capital firms typically sell most of their shares during the IPO, at which time retail and clients of institutional investors become the owner. 

Cava Valuation

The Cava valuation at the IPO price of $22 was about $2.45 billion. The Cava valuation at the opening trade price of $42 was $4.67 billion

For comparison, the Sweetgreen IPO was valued at $3 billion, and the company is worth half that the day before the Cava IPO. 

The April 2021 Series F funding round confirmed the last Cava pre-IPO valuation to be about $1.3 billion. The 2023 Cava IPO will raise about $318 million.

Will Cava be a Motley Fool Stock Advisor Recommendation?

We won’t know until after the Cava IPO if the company will be a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation.

Cava fits the mold of high-growth, disruptive business models (fast-growing food concepts) that the Fool typically recommends. Chipotle, for example, is a long-time recommendation. 

With the recent lack of IPOs, new companies going public will get a sharp eye from all growth stock newsletters. 

Read this Motley Fool Stock Advisor review to learn about the stock selection methodology and about how you can benefit from Fool recommendations. 

Stock Advisor is currently half-off for new members at just $99 for an annual subscription.

Join Now for 50% Off!

How to Invest in Cava Stock

The Cava IPO is fast approaching. Perform due diligence before committing funds toward the IPO. 

If you decide you want to invest, you can take action to improve your chances of acquiring shares in the IPO. 

1. Buy Cava stock via an Online Broker 

Cava stock is now a public company. 

Buy post-IPO stocks with any online broker.

If the Cava stock price increases dramatically due to the IPO “pop”, beware of acquiring shares at elevated prices. You may be wise to wait for a pullback before buying Cava stock. 

2. Buy Cava during the Cava IPO through a participating broker

*** TOO LATE. THIS IS NO LONGER AN OPTION ***

Webull accepted orders for the Cava IPO for about a week but closed the offering early June 14th. 

Open an account with Webull to access future IPOs. Investors much pre-fund their account to place an IPO order. 

Those who indicated interest are not guaranteed to receive shares. Share allocations depend on many factors, including demand. 

Webull partners with ClickIPO and others to provide access to multiple IPOs. ClickIPO did not offer IPO shares on its app, so it’s unclear how Webull acquired its allocation. 

Open an account, deposit sufficient funds, and be ready for the new IPO investing opportunity. Webull requires settled deposits to place an order. ACH transfers take several days. Wiring funds may be a better option. 

Here’s a screen capture from my Webull account showing Cava IPO availability:

TradeStation also has a relationship with ClickIPO but did not offer shares to TradeStation customers. TradeStation customers reserve IPO shares through the ClickIPO app.

The minimum IPO investment on the TradeStation platform is $500.

To do this, open an account with TradeStation and deposit sufficient funds immediately. Then download the ClickIPO app and connect it to your TradeStation account. 

The following additional online brokers offer IPO access, but these appear less likely now that Webull is showing availability. 

• Robinhood 

TradeStation and Webull have longer track records of accessing more than 350 IPOs and secondary offerings via their partnerships with ClickIPO. 

But Robinhood has the advantage of Silicon Valley networks and a history of getting allocations for high-profile IPOs.

Check out this list of best brokers for IPO investing to learn more about IPO access for retail investors.

3. Become a Cava Customer to Access the IPO (Cava Directed Share Program)

*** THIS CHANCE HAS PASSED ***

Please note: Access IPOs could not confirm if any Cava Rewards members were invited to participate in the IPO. If you have information about this or were invited, please contact me to provide details so I can share the information for transparency. You will remain anonymous. 

A rising trend in startups is offering IPO access to retail investors. Sometimes, preferred access goes to customers that meet certain eligibility. 

For example, Robinhood offered shares of the Robinhood IPO to its customers.

Sweetgreen offered IPO shares to its customers via a directed share program. 

Uber offered shares to drivers that completed a certain number of trips.

GoPro offered shares to its email list. 

Airbnb offered IPO shares to hosts. 

Though not guaranteed for anyone, Cava and its underwriters are expected to offer IPO shares to its customers or retail investors. Here’s what the S-1 Filing says:

At our request, the underwriters have reserved 5% of the shares of common stock offered by this prospectus for sale, at the initial public offering price, to certain tiers of eligible CAVA Rewards members, certain suppliers, certain individuals identified by our executive team and other certain individuals affiliated with us.

The most likely way to become eligible to invest in the Cava IPO through preferred access is to get on the email list, download the app, and order food to become a premium customer. 

Here are the Cava Rewards thresholds that customers may need to meet to become eligible to invest:

It may be too late since the IPO is already on the way. We have not yet confirmed what retail broker, if any, will offer IPO shares. 

At a minimum, make sure to open all emails from Cava because that could be an eligibility factor.

As the IPO approaches, monitor all Cava emails for information regarding IPO access. Investors will need to respond quickly to be eligible to receive an allocation. IPO access is never guaranteed. 

4. Access Cava Shares on Pre-IPO investing platforms

***THIS OPTION IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE NOW THAT THE IPO FILING HAS BEEN RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC. ***

Investors may monitor pre-IPO investing platforms such as Hiive, Forge Global, Linqto, and EquityZen for share availability.

However, I have seen no evidence of pre-IPO share availability.

And now that Cava has filed confidentially for an IPO, it is unlikely we’ll see more activity until one or two months before the Cava IPO date. 

If shares become available (more likely if Cava withdraws the IPO filing), expect to pay at least a $10,000 investment minimum. It’s free to sign up for online access to pre-IPO data and deal alerts. 

Pre-IPO investing platforms empower users to indicate interest in companies they wish to invest in.

If enough investors indicate interest in a particular company, the pre-IPO platforms may actively reach out to equity holders to try to acquire shares for accredited investors.

Retail investors can bypass the accreditation requirement for pre-IPO investing by owning the Fundrise Innovation Fund.

However, you cannot select individual pre-IPO companies, and Cava stock is not in the portfolio. 

Please note: This is a testimonial in partnership with Fundrise. We earn a commission from partner links on AccessIPOs.com. All opinions are my own.

Cava News Archive

02/06/2023: Multiple Restaurant Companies Looking to Test IPO Demand
02/06/2023: CAVA Announces Confidential Submission of Proposed IPO
04/27/2021: Cava Restaurant Nears $1.3 Billion Value With New Funding
04/18/2019: Cava pursues national presence after Zoe’s Kitchen acquisition
03/30/2017: People are obsessed with this Mediterranean chain
03/28/2017: Cava Group receives $30M in new funding
09/24/2015: Cava Group Inc. gets $45 million investment
08/03/2014: Cava to nearly double by next summer

Conclusion – Cava Stock and Cava IPO

Cava was the first major restaurant chain to IPO in 2023. Others are interested, including Panera Brands and Fogo de Chão, and will closely monitor the Cava IPO.

In fact, many pre-IPO company may accelerate their path to an IPO because of the success of the Cava IPO. 

Buying the stocks before the IPOs may prove difficult if they are already on the road to an IPO. Investors who want to invest should become customers, then prepare by joining online brokers offering free IPO access.

If you are inclined to pursue IPO shares or early equity, maintain reasonable expectations. Acquiring shares is never guaranteed. You’ll need to respond quickly to participate in the IPO. 

But also beware that IPO access does not guarantee profits. Consider overvalued IPOs to be the same as overvalued public companies. 

Congratulations if were able to receive an allocation of Cava stock during the Cava IPO. Only invest in pre-IPO and IPO companies with money you can afford to lose.