Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 440,003 Shares of The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL - Free Report) by 46.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 513,818 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 440,003 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.51% of Simply Good Foods worth $17,722,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. increased its stake in Simply Good Foods by 18.3% in the first quarter. Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 358,370 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $12,360,000 after acquiring an additional 55,470 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of Simply Good Foods by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 49,145 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,695,000 after purchasing an additional 687 shares during the last quarter. Covea Finance raised its holdings in shares of Simply Good Foods by 21.5% during the 1st quarter. Covea Finance now owns 202,500 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $6,984,000 after buying an additional 35,900 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Simply Good Foods during the 1st quarter worth $1,437,000. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in shares of Simply Good Foods by 25.2% during the 1st quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 1,240,500 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $42,785,000 after buying an additional 250,000 shares during the last quarter. 88.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Simply Good Foods Trading Up 1.8%

SMPL traded up $0.58 during trading on Friday, reaching $32.89. 2,722,508 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,000,894. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $33.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.32 billion, a PE ratio of 22.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.68. The Simply Good Foods Company has a one year low of $30.47 and a one year high of $40.53. The company has a current ratio of 4.27, a quick ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 10th. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $380,956 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $381.68 million. Simply Good Foods had a return on equity of 10.39% and a net margin of 10.31%. Simply Good Foods's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Simply Good Foods Company will post 1.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SMPL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Simply Good Foods from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 27th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Simply Good Foods from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group set a $36.00 target price on shares of Simply Good Foods and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Simply Good Foods from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Simply Good Foods from $43.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $39.71.

About Simply Good Foods

The Simply Good Foods Company operates as a consumer-packaged food and beverage company in North America and internationally. The company develops, markets, and sells snacks and meal replacements. It offers protein bars, ready-to-drink shakes, sweet and salty snacks, cookies, protein chips, and recipes under the Atkins and Quest brand names.