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Needham Says This Premium Pasta Sauce Company Could Rally More Than 20%

Sovos Brands , which owns the pasta sauce brand Rao's, is "full of pasta-bility while making sauce and cents," according to Needham. The firm believes Rao's could grow more than 75% over the next three to four years and become a $1 billion brand. "Growth in pasta sauce coupled with brand extension into adjacent categories provides ample opportunity for Rao's brand growth," analyst Matt McGinley wrote in a Wednesday note. McGinley initiated a buy rating on Sovos shares. He set his price target to $22.50 per share, implying shares could rally nearly 22% from Tuesday's close. "While we expect the Rao's brand to generate the majority of Sovos' growth, we think it benefits from operating multiple brands, as [that will] allow it to leverage its manufacturing and distribution, and provide cross-selling opportunities that can drive scale efficiencies and push the operating margin higher," he continued. Needham said the company is well-positioned for mergers and acquisitions due to its healthy balance sheet. McGinley noted Sovos has an "asset-light production model" that will allow it to generate strong cash flow. The analyst estimated Sovos could sustain double-digit topline growth. "With operating leverage driving margin expansion, EBITDA and cash flow will grow faster than the top line, in our view. We expect operating leverage, mix, and productivity gains to push [gross margin] from 28% in '22 to > 30% over the next 1-2 years," McGinley said. Sovos shares have jumped about 29% year to date. The stock was up more than 1% in trading Wednesday. — CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

Sauce Gardner Was Gifted Shoes With Jessica Alba's Face All Over Them

Sauce Gardner Gifted Custom Jessica Alba CleatsElsa - Getty Images

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New York Jets star cornerback Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner recently failed to recall the name of actress Jessica Alba.

Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who attended the game with Gardner, sold him out on his memory fail.

Artist Mike Jordan took the shaming a step further, painting a custom pair of cleats featuring Alba's most iconic roles on them.

Look, keeping celebrity names straight can be tricky for anyone. It's a common problem. Heck, I'll own up to it: Back in my French New Wave class in college, I always mixed up Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean-Louis Tritignant. I know, what a goofball, right?

We don't know if Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner, star cornerback for the New York Jets, can spot the difference between Belmondo or Tritignant either (does he strike you as more of an A bout de souffle or Et Dieu... Créa la femme kinda guy?), but what we now know is that he did have trouble recognizing Jessica Alba, the star of hits like Honey and The Fantastic Four.

But now, a pair of custom kicks will make sure he never forgets.

According to Fansided, it all started when Gardner failed to recall the name of the Dark Angel star while attending a Knicks game with Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers at Madison Square Garden, where Alba was also in attendance.

It's not to say Gardner was completely clueless to the movie star who dominated our screens at the dawn of the new millennium. He reported having seen both Honey and The Fantastic Four. No word on whether or not Gardner has seen the cult comedy The Ten, but if not, someone should hook him up.

What someone has hooked him up with is a pair of custom cleats, hand painted with depictions of Alba in arguably her two most famous roles, Honey Daniels and Sue Storm. (One could make the case for Nancy from Sin City being equally iconic, but there's only so much room on a pair of shoes.)

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Artist Mike Jordan posted the custom shoes on Instagram with the caption, "My guy @saucegardner didn't ask for these but it had to be done. Here's to new friendships!"

So let that be a lesson to everyone out there: Don't bother learning celebrity names. It could get you a free pair of shoes.

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