Insider Selling: Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM) Director Sells 1,000 Shares of Stock

Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM) Director Douglas Gregory Rauch sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.25, for a total transaction of $140,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 10,598 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,486,369.50. This represents a 8.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Sprouts Farmers Market Stock Performance

NASDAQ:SFM opened at $139.77 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $150.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $135.24. The firm has a market cap of $13.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.67. Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. has a 1-year low of $61.61 and a 1-year high of $178.99.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) last released 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. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. Sprouts Farmers Market had a return on equity of 29.86% and a net margin of 4.93%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sprouts Farmers Market

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market during the fourth quarter valued at $143,113,000. Congress Asset Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 94.9% in the fourth quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 1,298,768 shares of the company’s stock worth $165,034,000 after buying an additional 632,523 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Sprouts Farmers Market during the 4th quarter worth about $64,117,000. Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market during the fourth quarter worth approximately $53,946,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,582,896 shares of the company’s stock worth $201,139,000 after acquiring an additional 294,553 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SFM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $174.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Sprouts Farmers Market from $185.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Sprouts Farmers Market from $132.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $131.00 to $136.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $162.92.

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.