Northcoast Research Upgrades Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) to “Buy”

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) was upgraded by equities researchers at Northcoast Research from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage presently has a $185.00 target price on the stock. Northcoast Research’s target price points to a potential upside of 29.49% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $140.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $105.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $140.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $132.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $119.00 to $139.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $154.00.

Sprouts Farmers Market Stock Performance

NASDAQ:SFM opened at $142.87 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. Sprouts Farmers Market has a fifty-two week low of $60.46 and a fifty-two week high of $178.99. The stock has a market cap of $14.08 billion, a PE ratio of 38.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.63. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $148.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $131.00.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.07. Sprouts Farmers Market had a net margin of 4.93% and a return on equity of 29.86%. The business had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. Analysts expect that Sprouts Farmers Market will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Sprouts Farmers Market news, Director Douglas Gregory Rauch sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.89, for a total value of $104,223.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,619,029.86. This trade represents a 6.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jack Sinclair sold 2,915 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.54, for a total transaction of $488,379.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 143,669 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,070,304.26. This trade represents a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 42,614 shares of company stock valued at $6,323,731. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sprouts Farmers Market

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Sprouts Farmers Market by 13.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,349,694 shares of the company’s stock valued at $149,020,000 after acquiring an additional 156,175 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Sprouts Farmers Market in the third quarter valued at approximately $13,348,000. SpiderRock Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Sprouts Farmers Market in the third quarter valued at approximately $3,252,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Sprouts Farmers Market by 5.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 983,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,561,000 after acquiring an additional 48,103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new stake in Sprouts Farmers Market in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,517,000.

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.