Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) Shares Gap Up Following Insider Buying Activity

Shares of Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT) gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday after an insider bought additional shares in the company. The stock had previously closed at $9.79, but opened at $10.34. Sprout Social shares last traded at $10.1650, with a volume of 255,133 shares traded.

Specifically, CEO Ryan Paul Barretto bought 93,984 shares of Sprout Social stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 9th. The stock was bought at an average price of $10.67 per share, with a total value of $1,002,809.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 875,256 shares in the company, valued at $9,338,981.52. The trade was a 12.03% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on SPT. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Sprout Social from $26.00 to $13.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Sprout Social in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price target on Sprout Social from $25.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Sprout Social from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sprout Social currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $24.64.

Sprout Social Trading Up 4.2%

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $603.74 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.59 and a beta of 0.81.

Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.07. Sprout Social had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a negative net margin of 10.59%.The company had revenue of $115.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $114.86 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.13 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sprout Social has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.770-0.790 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.150-0.170 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Sprout Social, Inc. will post -0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sprout Social

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of Sprout Social in the 2nd quarter valued at $880,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC grew its position in Sprout Social by 20.4% during the 2nd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 237,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,964,000 after acquiring an additional 40,223 shares during the last quarter. CenterBook Partners LP increased its holdings in Sprout Social by 254.4% in the 2nd quarter. CenterBook Partners LP now owns 118,840 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,485,000 after purchasing an additional 85,309 shares in the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC raised its position in Sprout Social by 357.9% in the second quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 69,813 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,460,000 after purchasing an additional 54,567 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in Sprout Social by 8.7% in the second quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,392,450 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,026,000 after purchasing an additional 192,007 shares during the last quarter.

Sprout Social Company Profile

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.