KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Makes New Investment in The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL)

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 30,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,193,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SMPL. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Simply Good Foods by 20.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,128,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $178,329,000 after purchasing an additional 855,070 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its position in shares of Simply Good Foods by 31.3% in the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 3,031,574 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $118,171,000 after buying an additional 722,963 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Simply Good Foods by 109.0% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,221,285 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $47,287,000 after acquiring an additional 637,038 shares in the last quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in Simply Good Foods during the third quarter valued at approximately $12,051,000. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its stake in Simply Good Foods by 34.9% in the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 990,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $38,610,000 after acquiring an additional 256,200 shares in the last quarter. 88.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Simply Good Foods Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SMPL opened at $34.40 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.24. The stock has a market cap of $3.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.40, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 4.23, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The Simply Good Foods Company has a 12 month low of $30.00 and a 12 month high of $40.53.

Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $341.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $347.32 million. Simply Good Foods had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that The Simply Good Foods Company will post 1.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Simply Good Foods in a research note on Monday, March 24th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $36.00 price target for the company. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Simply Good Foods from $48.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.56.

About Simply Good Foods

The Simply Good Foods Company operates as a consumer-packaged food and beverage company in North America and internationally. The company develops, markets, and sells snacks and meal replacements. It offers protein bars, ready-to-drink shakes, sweet and salty snacks, cookies, protein chips, and recipes under the Atkins and Quest brand names.