Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) PT Raised to $63.00 at Evercore ISI

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM - Free Report) had its price objective upped by Evercore ISI from $62.00 to $63.00 in a research note released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an in-line rating on the stock.

SFM has been the topic of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Sprouts Farmers Market from $56.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Bank of America upgraded Sprouts Farmers Market from an underperform rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $51.43.

Sprouts Farmers Market Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SFM traded up $0.19 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $63.80. 1,074,248 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,321,868. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.46 billion, a PE ratio of 25.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.50. Sprouts Farmers Market has a one year low of $32.12 and a one year high of $65.53. The company's 50 day moving average is $57.59 and its 200 day moving average is $49.17.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. Sprouts Farmers Market had a return on equity of 26.71% and a net margin of 3.79%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.42 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Sprouts Farmers Market will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Brandon F. Lombardi sold 22,799 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.98, for a total transaction of $1,367,484.02. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,328 shares in the company, valued at $499,513.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Sprouts Farmers Market news, insider Brandon F. Lombardi sold 3,865 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.21, for a total value of $240,441.65. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,328 shares of the company's stock, valued at $518,084.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Brandon F. Lombardi sold 22,799 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.98, for a total value of $1,367,484.02. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,328 shares of the company's stock, valued at $499,513.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 160,852 shares of company stock worth $10,032,745. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Sprouts Farmers Market

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SFM. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Sprouts Farmers Market by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,017,621 shares of the company's stock worth $352,344,000 after buying an additional 57,361 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in Sprouts Farmers Market by 2.2% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,898,332 shares of the company's stock worth $188,629,000 after buying an additional 128,000 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,854,433 shares of the company's stock valued at $135,021,000 after purchasing an additional 112,789 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 111.3% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,093,805 shares of the company's stock worth $100,146,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629,709 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 614.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,039,640 shares of the company's stock worth $146,359,000 after purchasing an additional 2,614,241 shares during the period.

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.