Franklin Resources Inc. Reduces Position in The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL)

Franklin Resources Inc. decreased its position in The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) by 12.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 929,291 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 136,650 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 0.92% of Simply Good Foods worth $36,224,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SMPL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Simply Good Foods in the fourth quarter worth about $44,006,000. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its position in Simply Good Foods by 31.3% during 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. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Simply Good Foods by 23.5% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,546,239 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $138,232,000 after buying an additional 674,618 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in 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 valued at $47,287,000 after acquiring an additional 637,038 shares during the period. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in shares of Simply Good Foods by 34.9% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on SMPL shares. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Simply Good Foods from $48.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Simply Good Foods in a research report on Monday, March 24th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $36.00 price target on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.56.

Simply Good Foods Stock Down 2.5 %

SMPL opened at $33.85 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $36.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.01, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.63. The Simply Good Foods Company has a fifty-two week low of $31.25 and a fifty-two week high of $40.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a current ratio of 4.23.

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

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.