Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Sprout Social has a consensus “Hold” rating from nine brokerages, with two sell, three hold, three buy and one strong-buy recommendation. The average 12-month price target is $10.43, below the stock’s reported $11.36 price.
• The company beat quarterly expectations, reporting adjusted earnings of $0.26 per share versus the $0.16 consensus and revenue of $123.85 million versus $122.19 million expected.
• Insiders sold 51,612 shares worth approximately $464,157 during the last quarter, including a sale by CEO Justyn Howard that reduced his stake by 84.36%.

Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus rating of "Hold" by the nine ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $10.4286.

A number of equities analysts have commented on SPT shares. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of Sprout Social in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Sprout Social from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Zacks Research raised Sprout Social from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Sprout Social from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Sprout Social from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Justyn Howard sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.28, for a total transaction of $331,200.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 7,417 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,412.76. This represents a 84.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 51,612 shares of company stock valued at $464,157 over the last quarter. 9.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Summit Securities Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Sprout Social by 399.0% in the fourth quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC now owns 2,520 shares of the company's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 2,015 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sprout Social in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Essential Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Sprout Social by 724.9% in the first quarter. Essential Partners LLC now owns 6,550 shares of the company's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 5,756 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Sprout Social by 115.8% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,368 shares of the company's stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 3,417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP raised its position in Sprout Social by 264.2% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,784 shares of the company's stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 2,745 shares during the last quarter.

Sprout Social Price Performance

Sprout Social stock opened at $11.36 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The company has a market capitalization of $688.30 million, a PE ratio of -22.72 and a beta of 0.95. Sprout Social has a one year low of $4.92 and a one year high of $15.56.

Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.10. Sprout Social had a negative return on equity of 8.80% and a negative net margin of 6.13%.The firm had revenue of $123.85 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $122.19 million. Sprout Social has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.110-1.150 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.290-0.300 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Sprout Social will post -0.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sprout Social Company Profile

Sprout Social NASDAQ: SPT is a Chicago-based software company specializing in social media management solutions for businesses of all sizes. The company provides a cloud-based platform designed to help organizations improve their social media presence through a suite of tools for content scheduling, community engagement, social listening and analytics. Sprout Social's platform is built to streamline the workflows of marketing, customer care and public relations teams by providing a centralized hub for managing multiple social channels.

The company's product offerings include publishing and scheduling capabilities that allow users to plan and automate social content across networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

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