StockNews.com Downgrades Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) to Hold

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) was downgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Wednesday.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Sprouts Farmers Market from $119.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $163.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $174.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in a research report on Tuesday. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $167.00.

Sprouts Farmers Market Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock opened at $148.31 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $151.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $136.87. The firm has a market cap of $14.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.67. Sprouts Farmers Market has a fifty-two week low of $61.61 and a fifty-two week high of $178.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Alisa Gmelich sold 445 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.42, for a total value of $61,151.90. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 4,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $609,595.12. The trade was a 9.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Timmi Zalatoris sold 1,065 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.97, for a total value of $143,743.05. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,326,755.10. This represents a 9.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 94,784 shares of company stock valued at $13,231,786. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sprouts Farmers Market

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of SFM. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Sprouts Farmers Market in the fourth quarter worth $143,113,000. Congress Asset Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 94.9% during the 4th quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 1,298,768 shares of the company’s stock worth $165,034,000 after purchasing an additional 632,523 shares in the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in the 4th quarter valued at about $64,117,000. Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC bought a new stake in Sprouts Farmers Market in the 4th quarter valued at about $53,946,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Sprouts Farmers Market by 22.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,582,896 shares of the company’s stock worth $201,139,000 after buying an additional 294,553 shares during the period.

About Sprouts Farmers Market

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.