Insider Selling: Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM) Director Sells 7,895 Shares of Stock

Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM) Director Joe Fortunato sold 7,895 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.38, for a total transaction of $776,710.10. Following the sale, the director now owns 45,071 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,434,084.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Joe Fortunato also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, May 21st, Joe Fortunato sold 5,000 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.48, for a total transaction of $392,400.00.

Sprouts Farmers Market Price Performance

Shares of SFM stock traded down $3.09 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $97.67. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,477,020 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,373,229. The business has a fifty day moving average of $81.83 and a 200-day moving average of $68.85. The stock has a market cap of $9.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.55. Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.10 and a twelve month high of $103.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The company reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. Sprouts Farmers Market had a net margin of 4.52% and a return on equity of 27.53%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. will post 3.38 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on SFM shares. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $102.00 in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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 report on Tuesday. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $84.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $89.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $68.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 28th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $87.11.

Institutional Trading of Sprouts Farmers Market

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of SFM. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 20,860 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,004,000 after purchasing an additional 5,028 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in the fourth quarter valued at $569,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Sprouts Farmers Market by 64.7% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $878,000 after purchasing an additional 7,171 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Sprouts Farmers Market by 69.4% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,408 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 577 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its stake in Sprouts Farmers Market by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,477,341 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,075,000 after purchasing an additional 17,565 shares during the last quarter.

Sprouts Farmers Market Company Profile

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.