Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) Reaches New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM) reached a new 52-week high on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $130.00 to $140.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Sprouts Farmers Market traded as high as $158.84 and last traded at $155.60, with a volume of 216252 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $155.11.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $102.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Sprouts Farmers Market from $127.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Sprouts Farmers Market from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on Sprouts Farmers Market from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sprouts Farmers Market currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $119.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sprouts Farmers Market news, Director Joseph D. O’leary sold 350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.11, for a total value of $52,538.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,700,629.01. This trade represents a 1.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Joseph L. Hurley sold 4,956 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.66, for a total transaction of $657,462.96. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,483,669.44. This trade represents a 30.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 61,869 shares of company stock valued at $8,778,152 over the last 90 days. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sprouts Farmers Market

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SFM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Sprouts Farmers Market by 13.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,349,694 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,020,000 after acquiring an additional 156,175 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Sprouts Farmers Market in the third quarter worth about $13,348,000. SpiderRock Advisors LLC bought a new position in Sprouts Farmers Market in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,252,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Sprouts Farmers Market by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 983,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,561,000 after buying an additional 48,103 shares during the period. Finally, First Hawaiian Bank bought a new stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market during the 4th quarter worth about $1,517,000.

Sprouts Farmers Market Trading Up 1.3 %

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $142.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $121.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 1.13. The company has a market capitalization of $15.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.63.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.14. Sprouts Farmers Market had a return on equity of 28.24% and a net margin of 4.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.