Macquarie Group Ltd. Sells 1,436 Shares of Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM)

Macquarie Group Ltd. cut its stake in Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM – Get Rating) by 1.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 96,519 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,436 shares during the period. Macquarie Group Ltd. owned about 0.09% of Sprouts Farmers Market worth $2,718,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in SFM. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 46.3% in the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,631,930 shares of the company’s stock worth $243,881,000 after purchasing an additional 3,048,706 shares during the last quarter. PGGM Investments purchased a new stake in Sprouts Farmers Market in the third quarter worth about $62,932,000. Wasatch Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Sprouts Farmers Market in the first quarter worth about $54,912,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Sprouts Farmers Market in the third quarter worth about $16,683,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Sprouts Farmers Market by 366.1% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 731,309 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,517,000 after acquiring an additional 574,423 shares during the period. 99.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Sprouts Farmers Market Stock Performance

SFM opened at $33.52 on Friday. Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. has a 52-week low of $22.56 and a 52-week high of $35.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a market cap of $3.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.39. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $32.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.98.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.05. Sprouts Farmers Market had a net margin of 4.08% and a return on equity of 25.40%. The firm had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. will post 2.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on SFM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 30th. Credit Suisse Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in a research report on Monday. Northcoast Research lowered shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 17th. Finally, Roth Capital reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in a research report on Friday, March 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sprouts Farmers Market currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.57.

Sprouts Farmers Market Company Profile

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Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc engages in the operation of healthy grocery stores. The firm specializes in fresh, natural and organic products. Its products include fresh produce, bulk foods, vitamins and supplements, grocery, meat and seafood, deli, bakery, dairy, frozen foods, body care and natural household items.