BMO Capital Markets Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) Stock

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) had its price target lifted by research analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $140.00 to $180.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “market perform” rating on the stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective points to a potential upside of 25.59% from the stock’s previous close.

SFM has been the topic of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $140.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $132.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $174.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market from $105.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $152.40.

Sprouts Farmers Market Stock Performance

Sprouts Farmers Market stock opened at $143.32 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $148.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $129.85. The company has a market cap of $14.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 0.59. Sprouts Farmers Market has a fifty-two week low of $52.57 and a fifty-two week high of $178.99.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Sprouts Farmers Market had a net margin of 4.93% and a return on equity of 29.86%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Sprouts Farmers Market will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sprouts Farmers Market

In other Sprouts Farmers Market news, CEO Jack Sinclair sold 2,915 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.54, for a total value of $488,379.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 143,669 shares in the company, valued at $24,070,304.26. The trade was a 1.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Douglas Gregory Rauch sold 700 shares of Sprouts Farmers Market stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.89, for a total transaction of $104,223.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,619,029.86. This trade represents a 6.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 42,614 shares of company stock worth $6,323,731 over the last ninety days. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sprouts Farmers Market

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SFM. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in the fourth quarter worth $143,113,000. Congress Asset Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 94.9% in the fourth quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 1,298,768 shares of the company’s stock worth $165,034,000 after buying an additional 632,523 shares during the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in the fourth quarter worth $64,117,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market by 2,577.7% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 452,672 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,980,000 after buying an additional 435,767 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in the fourth quarter worth $53,946,000.

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.