Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Monday.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on SFM. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Sprouts Farmers Market from $180.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Sprouts Farmers Market from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Sprouts Farmers Market from $124.00 to $91.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Sprouts Farmers Market from $148.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on Sprouts Farmers Market from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sprouts Farmers Market currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $137.86.

Sprouts Farmers Market Trading Down 4.7%

Shares of NASDAQ SFM opened at $79.75 on Monday. Sprouts Farmers Market has a 12-month low of $75.75 and a 12-month high of $182.00. The company has a market cap of $7.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.72. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $114.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $144.87.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.05. Sprouts Farmers Market had a return on equity of 38.83% and a net margin of 5.93%.The firm had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sprouts Farmers Market has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.240-5.280 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.860-0.900 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Sprouts Farmers Market will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sprouts Farmers Market declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, August 19th that permits the company to repurchase $0.00 in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Joe Fortunato sold 10,000 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.57, for a total value of $1,475,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,164 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,680,461.48. This trade represents a 35.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Jack Sinclair sold 4,045 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.60, for a total value of $560,637.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 174,740 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,218,964. This trade represents a 2.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,447 shares of company stock valued at $4,276,512. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sprouts Farmers Market

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Sprouts Farmers Market by 98.6% in the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 284 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 29.9% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 3,353 shares of the company’s stock valued at $365,000 after buying an additional 772 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 29.0% during the third quarter. Renaissance Group LLC now owns 69,834 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,598,000 after buying an additional 15,694 shares during the last quarter. Renasant Bank raised its holdings in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 39.4% during the third quarter. Renasant Bank now owns 2,210 shares of the company’s stock valued at $240,000 after buying an additional 625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Axim Planning & Wealth bought a new stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market during the third quarter valued at approximately $230,000.

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.