Melius Research Initiates Coverage on Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM)

Melius Research assumed coverage on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) in a report issued on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued a hold rating and a $105.00 price target on the stock.

SFM has been the subject of a number of other research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised Sprouts Farmers Market from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $102.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada started coverage on Sprouts Farmers Market in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a sector perform rating and a $107.00 price target for the company. Bank of America increased their price objective on Sprouts Farmers Market from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $63.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and increased their price target for the stock from $62.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Sprouts Farmers Market currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $99.80.

Sprouts Farmers Market Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:SFM opened at $108.47 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $98.30 and a 200-day moving average of $81.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The firm has a market cap of $10.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.40, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.56. Sprouts Farmers Market has a twelve month low of $39.76 and a twelve month high of $110.98.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The company reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.84 billion. Sprouts Farmers Market had a return on equity of 27.53% and a net margin of 4.52%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.71 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Sprouts Farmers Market will post 3.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Timmi Zalatoris sold 56,800 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $5,680,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 10,895 shares in the company, valued at $1,089,500. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Timmi Zalatoris sold 56,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $5,680,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 10,895 shares in the company, valued at $1,089,500. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Dustin Hamilton sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.52, for a total transaction of $48,760.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 27,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,651,373.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 123,221 shares of company stock valued at $12,130,609. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sprouts Farmers Market

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SFM. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in Sprouts Farmers Market by 411.4% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,538,410 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,013,000 after acquiring an additional 1,237,610 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 167.4% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,555,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $130,107,000 after purchasing an additional 973,666 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in Sprouts Farmers Market by 15.4% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 4,438,144 shares of the company’s stock worth $371,295,000 after purchasing an additional 593,600 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Sprouts Farmers Market during the fourth quarter worth $23,992,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 36.9% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,478,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,135,000 after buying an additional 398,901 shares in the last quarter.

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.