Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM) Shares Bought by Putnam Investments LLC

Putnam Investments LLC raised its position in Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM) by 63.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 342,800 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 132,608 shares during the period. Putnam Investments LLC owned approximately 0.33% of Sprouts Farmers Market worth $12,008,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SFM. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,589,039 shares of the company’s stock valued at $546,084,000 after purchasing an additional 624,365 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,017,621 shares of the company’s stock valued at $352,344,000 after purchasing an additional 57,361 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,898,332 shares of the company’s stock valued at $188,629,000 after purchasing an additional 128,000 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Sprouts Farmers Market by 111.3% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,093,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,146,000 after acquiring an additional 1,629,709 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on SFM. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $45.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in a report on Saturday, August 19th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Sprouts Farmers Market currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.00.

Sprouts Farmers Market Price Performance

SFM opened at $40.80 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 1.18. Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. has a 1 year low of $26.34 and a 1 year high of $41.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.16 billion, a PE ratio of 16.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.07. Sprouts Farmers Market had a net margin of 3.86% and a return on equity of 27.23%. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.69 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.57 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. will post 2.74 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Sprouts Farmers Market news, VP Stacy W. Hilgendorf sold 6,626 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.99, for a total transaction of $264,973.74. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,474 shares in the company, valued at $458,845.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Sprouts Farmers Market news, VP Stacy W. Hilgendorf sold 6,626 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.99, for a total transaction of $264,973.74. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,474 shares in the company, valued at $458,845.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Scott Neal sold 58,427 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.03, for a total transaction of $2,221,978.81. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $486,061.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 75,975 shares of company stock valued at $2,921,150. Insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

About Sprouts Farmers Market

Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, retails fresh, natural, and organic food products in the United States. It provides perishable product categories, including fresh produce, meat, 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.