Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) Shares Gap Down After Insider Selling

Key Points

• Sprout Social shares gapped down at the open after an insider sale, falling from a prior close of $8.56 to an open of $7.99 before later trading around $8.42.
• Insider Justyn Russell Howard sold 40,000 shares on July 10 at an average price of $8.28, a transaction worth $331,200. The sale was made under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: Sprout Social has a consensus Hold rating with a price target of $11.88, while recent earnings beat expectations and the company issued Q2 2026 and FY 2026 guidance.

Shares of Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT - Get Free Report) gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock had previously closed at $8.56, but opened at $7.99. Sprout Social shares last traded at $8.4230, with a volume of 122,794 shares changing hands.

Specifically, insider Justyn Russell 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 transaction, the insider owned 7,417 shares of the company's stock, valued at $61,412.76. This represents a 84.36% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SPT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective on Sprout Social from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of Sprout Social in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $11.88.

Sprout Social Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $508.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.83 and a beta of 0.99. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $7.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.07. Sprout Social had a negative return on equity of 13.90% and a negative net margin of 8.18%.The business had revenue of $121.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.33 million. Sprout Social has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.150-0.160 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.970 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Sprout Social, Inc. will post -0.31 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sprout Social

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Sprout Social by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 53,127 shares of the company's stock worth $1,168,000 after purchasing an additional 1,265 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in Sprout Social by 39.1% in the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 6,235 shares of the company's stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 1,752 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in Sprout Social by 55.5% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,496 shares of the company's stock valued at $115,000 after buying an additional 1,962 shares in the last quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC lifted its position in Sprout Social by 399.0% during the fourth quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC now owns 2,520 shares of the company's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 2,015 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC grew its stake in Sprout Social by 13.0% during the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 18,573 shares of the company's stock worth $388,000 after buying an additional 2,131 shares during the period.

About Sprout Social

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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