International Assets Investment Management LLC Purchases 62,755 Shares of Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM)

International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM - Free Report) by 2,152.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 65,670 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 62,755 shares during the quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC owned about 0.06% of Sprouts Farmers Market worth $3,159,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 acquiring an additional 57,361 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 2.2% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,898,332 shares of the company's stock valued at $188,629,000 after buying an additional 128,000 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 3.0% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,854,433 shares of the company's stock valued at $135,021,000 after buying an additional 112,789 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 111.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,093,805 shares of the company's stock valued at $100,146,000 after buying an additional 1,629,709 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 614.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,039,640 shares of the company's stock valued at $146,359,000 after buying an additional 2,614,241 shares in the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on SFM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Sprouts Farmers Market from $56.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Sprouts Farmers Market from $62.00 to $61.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Sprouts Farmers Market from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the company 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 given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Sprouts Farmers Market currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $51.14.

Sprouts Farmers Market Stock Performance

NASDAQ:SFM traded up $0.68 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $63.10. 1,116,485 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,275,957. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.01. Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.12 and a 52 week high of $65.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.50.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.70 billion for 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 business's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.42 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sprouts Farmers Market

In other news, insider Brandon F. Lombardi sold 3,865 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.21, for a total transaction of $240,441.65. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $518,084.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Brandon F. Lombardi sold 3,865 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.21, for a total transaction of $240,441.65. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $518,084.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jack Sinclair sold 31,710 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.03, for a total value of $1,998,681.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 274,981 shares in the company, valued at $17,332,052.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 160,852 shares of company stock valued at $10,032,745 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

Sprouts Farmers Market Profile

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.