Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) Downgraded to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on SFM. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $132.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Sprouts Farmers Market from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $163.00 to $190.00 in a report on Monday, March 17th. Roth Mkm upped their price objective on Sprouts Farmers Market from $105.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Sprouts Farmers Market from $174.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Northcoast Research raised shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $167.00.

Sprouts Farmers Market Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SFM opened at $149.78 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The company has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.67. Sprouts Farmers Market has a twelve month low of $61.61 and a twelve month high of $178.99. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $151.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $136.79.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Sprouts Farmers Market had a net margin of 4.93% and a return on equity of 29.86%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Sprouts Farmers Market will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Sprouts Farmers Market

In other Sprouts Farmers Market news, COO Nicholas Konat sold 11,283 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.13, for a total value of $1,614,935.79. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 55,675 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,968,762.75. The trade was a 16.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Timmi Zalatoris sold 1,065 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.97, for a total transaction of $143,743.05. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,326,755.10. This represents a 9.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 94,784 shares of company stock worth $13,231,786 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sprouts Farmers Market

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Sprouts Farmers Market by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,604,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,347,554,000 after purchasing an additional 56,652 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 4,464,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $567,322,000 after buying an additional 24,000 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,484,059 shares of the company’s stock valued at $275,634,000 after buying an additional 56,161 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in Sprouts Farmers Market by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,843,320 shares of the company’s stock valued at $234,231,000 after buying an additional 168,605 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Sprouts Farmers Market by 22.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,582,896 shares of the company’s stock worth $201,139,000 after acquiring an additional 294,553 shares in the last quarter.

Sprouts Farmers Market Company Profile

Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the retailing of fresh, natural, and organic food products under the Sprouts brand in the United States. It offers perishable product categories, including fresh produce, meat and meat alternatives, seafood, deli, bakery, floral, and dairy and dairy alternatives; and non-perishable product categories, such as grocery, vitamins and supplements, bulk items, frozen foods, beer and wine, and natural health and body care.