Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT)

Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors acquired 13,805 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 2,305% compared to the average volume of 574 put options.

Insider Activity

In other Sprout Social news, CEO Ryan Paul Barretto bought 93,984 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 9th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $10.67 per share, with a total value of $1,002,809.28. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 875,256 shares in the company, valued at $9,338,981.52. The trade was a 12.03% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Aaron Edward Frederick Rankin purchased 90,661 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $11.14 per share, with a total value of $1,009,963.54. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 114,969 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,280,754.66. This represents a 372.97% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 103,855 shares of company stock worth $827,660. Corporate insiders own 10.12% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sprout Social

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SPT. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Sprout Social by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,822,928 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,894,000 after purchasing an additional 274,527 shares during the last quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Sprout Social by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC now owns 4,723,921 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,033,000 after buying an additional 421,189 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Sprout Social by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,546,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,425,000 after buying an additional 117,757 shares during the last quarter. Topline Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sprout Social in the 3rd quarter valued at $17,555,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Sprout Social by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,254,451 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,141,000 after buying an additional 123,983 shares during the period.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on SPT shares. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $9.00 target price (down from $16.00) on shares of Sprout Social in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Sprout Social from $32.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Sprout Social from $9.00 to $6.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Sprout Social from $13.00 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Sprout Social from $15.00 to $12.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.67.

Sprout Social Stock Down 2.6%

NASDAQ SPT opened at $5.71 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $8.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.43. Sprout Social has a one year low of $5.68 and a one year high of $25.81. The firm has a market cap of $337.97 million, a PE ratio of -7.72 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.93.

Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.04. Sprout Social had a negative return on equity of 16.10% and a negative net margin of 9.47%.The firm had revenue of $120.89 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.68 million. Sprout Social has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.970 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.150-0.160 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Sprout Social will post -0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.