Arizona State Retirement System Buys Shares of 7,604 Vital Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ:VITL)

Arizona State Retirement System bought a new stake in Vital Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ:VITL) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 7,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $356,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Vital Farms in the second quarter valued at about $42,000. CWM LLC lifted its position in Vital Farms by 162.9% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,057 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 655 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC lifted its position in Vital Farms by 66.7% in the second quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Vital Farms by 8.6% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,095 shares of the company’s stock valued at $192,000 after buying an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Vital Farms in the first quarter valued at about $210,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.59% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VITL. TD Cowen raised shares of Vital Farms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Vital Farms from $42.00 to $34.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Matthew Ohayer sold 24,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.58, for a total transaction of $949,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,266,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $287,619,033.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Russell Diez-Canseco sold 44,381 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.71, for a total value of $1,939,893.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 427,839 shares in the company, valued at $18,700,842.69. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Matthew Ohayer sold 24,000 shares of Vital Farms stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.58, for a total value of $949,920.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,266,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $287,619,033.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 30.20% of the company’s stock.

Vital Farms Stock Performance

Shares of Vital Farms stock opened at $32.43 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.15 and a beta of 0.96. Vital Farms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $10.41 and a 52 week high of $48.41. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $34.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $33.13.

Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $147.39 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $138.41 million. Vital Farms had a return on equity of 22.77% and a net margin of 8.70%. The company’s revenue was up 38.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.15 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Vital Farms, Inc. will post 1.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Vital Farms

Vital Farms, Inc, a food company, provides pasture-raised products in the United States. It offers shell eggs, butter, hard-boiled eggs, and liquid whole eggs. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.