The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $40.22.

SMPL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stephens reduced their price target on shares of Simply Good Foods from $44.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Mizuho reduced their target price on Simply Good Foods from $48.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on Simply Good Foods from $46.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th.

Simply Good Foods Trading Down 4.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ SMPL opened at $34.36 on Monday. Simply Good Foods has a 1 year low of $30.00 and a 1 year high of $42.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 4.05 and a quick ratio of 2.75. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $38.26 and a 200 day moving average of $35.44. The stock has a market cap of $3.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.67.

Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.06. Simply Good Foods had a return on equity of 10.23% and a net margin of 10.46%. The company had revenue of $341.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $347.32 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.43 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Simply Good Foods will post 1.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Timothy Richard Kraft sold 76,761 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.60, for a total value of $2,886,213.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 40,068 shares in the company, valued at $1,506,556.80. The trade was a 65.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Scalzo sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.99, for a total value of $899,750.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 139,204 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,009,951.96. This represents a 15.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 327,869 shares of company stock valued at $12,139,570. 9.35% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Simply Good Foods

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in Simply Good Foods during the third quarter valued at $27,391,000. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Simply Good Foods by 21.0% in the 3rd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 187,549 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,521,000 after acquiring an additional 32,561 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC grew its position in Simply Good Foods by 65.0% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 41,277 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,435,000 after acquiring an additional 16,268 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in Simply Good Foods by 42.7% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 51,664 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,796,000 after acquiring an additional 15,455 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in Simply Good Foods by 20.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,128,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $178,329,000 after purchasing an additional 855,070 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.45% of the company’s stock.

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.