Not a good buy right now for an impatient investor: price is in a steep downtrend and momentum is still worsening.
Oversold RSI can spark a short-lived bounce, but there is no confirmed reversal signal and support is close to breaking.
Options positioning is call-heavy (bullish skew), yet actual option volume is near-zero—so sentiment is weakly supported by real activity.
With no near-term news catalysts and earnings not until 2026-03-05, the setup favors avoiding/standing aside rather than buying immediately.
Technical Analysis
Trend: Bearish. Moving averages are stacked negatively (SMA_200 > SMA_20 > SMA_5), confirming a sustained downtrend.
Momentum: Bearish and deteriorating. MACD histogram is negative (-0.0208) and expanding downward, suggesting selling pressure is still building.
Mean-reversion: Extremely oversold. RSI(6) at 14.26 signals oversold conditions that can produce a rebound, but oversold alone is not a buy trigger.
Levels: Current price 0.589 is below S1 (0.608) and above S2 (0.553). A clean break below ~0.553 would be technically damaging; first meaningful reclaim level is S1/0.608 then pivot 0.698.
Market context: NDLS is down sharply while SP500 is also down (-1.12%), adding risk-on pressure.
Pattern-based forward view (similar candlesticks): modest upside bias but small magnitude (next day ~0.33%, next week ~0.79%, next month ~3.66%), which is not compelling versus current downside momentum.
Positioning: Put/Call open interest ratio 0.33 indicates call-heavy open interest (bullish skew), but this may reflect legacy positioning rather than new conviction.
Activity: Options volume is extremely low today (2 total; 0 puts), so the “bullish” skew isn’t backed by meaningful current flow.
Volatility: 30D IV is very high (211.73) vs historical volatility (72.39), implying the market is pricing large moves; IV has been elevated but drifting down vs 5D/10D averages.
Liquidity note: With such low daily option volume, sentiment signals from options should be treated as low-confidence.
Technical Summary
Sell
9
Buy
5
Positive Catalysts
~
increases odds of a short-term relief bounce if price reclaims ~0.608 and holds.
Neutral/Negative Catalysts
Strong bearish trend intact: bearish MA stack + MACD histogram negative and expanding.
Price is sub-$1 and recently dropped another ~9.33% in regular session with further pre-market weakness (-5.60%), reflecting persistent selling.
Revenue slightly declined YoY in the latest reported quarter, limiting the “growth turnaround” narrative.
No news in the past week to interrupt the downtrend; no clear event-driven catalyst in the immediate term.
Trading trends: hedge funds neutral and insiders neutral—no supportive accumulation signal from informed cohorts.
Financial Performance
Latest reported quarter: 2025/Q3.
Revenue: $122.086M, down -0.54% YoY (flat-to-down top line).
Net income: -$9.151M, improved +35.47% YoY (loss narrowed, but still unprofitable).
Gross margin: 18.61%, up +2.48% YoY (margin improvement is a key positive trend).
Growth
Profitability
Efficiency
Analyst Ratings and Price Target Trends
No analyst rating or price target change data was provided, so a Wall Street consensus trend cannot be confirmed.
Practical takeaway: without visible analyst upgrades/targets, the current tape (price + momentum) is doing the primary signaling, and it remains decisively bearish.
Wall Street analysts forecast NDLS stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for NDLS is 0 USD with a low forecast of 0 USD and a high forecast of 0 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
Analyst Rating
0
Wall Street analysts forecast NDLS stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for NDLS is 0 USD with a low forecast of 0 USD and a high forecast of 0 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
Buy
Hold
Sell
0
Current: 0.550
Low
0
Averages
0
High
0
0
Current: 0.550
Low
0
Averages
0
High
0
Benchmark
Buy
to
Hold
downgrade
AI Analysis
2025-08-15
Reason
Benchmark
Price Target
AI Analysis
2025-08-15
downgrade
Buy
to
Hold
Reason
Benchmark downgraded Noodles & Company to Hold from Buy.
Benchmark
Buy
to
Hold
downgrade
2025-08-15
Reason
Benchmark
Price Target
2025-08-15
downgrade
Buy
to
Hold
Reason
As previously reported, Benchmark downgraded Noodles & Company to Hold from Buy and removed the firm's prior price target. Q2 results displayed evidence of "a mismatch" between the company's newly introduced, higher-quality menu and the current consumer environment "hyper-focused on value," the analyst tells investors. Given a near-term mismatch between a newly reinvented menu at higher price points and consumers who are increasingly seeking out price-point focused value, the firm steps to the sidelines as it awaits the response to a newly introduced value platform and any improvement in the overall consumer environment.
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