Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.12, Briefing.com reports. Sprouts Farmers Market had a net margin of 3.79% and a return on equity of 26.71%. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis.

Sprouts Farmers Market Stock Performance

Shares of SFM traded up $8.12 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $72.41. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,003,553 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,342,437. The company has a market cap of $7.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.66, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $52.52. Sprouts Farmers Market has a 52-week low of $32.12 and a 52-week high of $74.03.

Insider Transactions at Sprouts Farmers Market

In other news, Director Joe Fortunato sold 13,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.71, for a total value of $828,230.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 39,395 shares in the company, valued at $2,509,855.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Sprouts Farmers Market news, VP Stacy W. Hilgendorf sold 417 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.47, for a total transaction of $26,049.99. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,331 shares in the company, valued at $645,377.57. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Joe Fortunato sold 13,000 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.71, for a total transaction of $828,230.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 39,395 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,509,855.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 160,852 shares of company stock worth $10,032,745 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SFM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $48.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $56.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Bank of America raised shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $62.00 to $61.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sprouts Farmers Market has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.50.

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.