36,315 Shares in Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. $SFM Purchased by Ballast Asset Management LP

Ballast Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFM) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 36,315 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,410,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Sprouts Farmers Market in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $768,171,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new position in Sprouts Farmers Market in the 2nd quarter worth about $131,310,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Sprouts Farmers Market in the 2nd quarter worth about $93,790,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Sprouts Farmers Market in the 2nd quarter worth about $55,713,000. Finally, Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sprouts Farmers Market during the 2nd quarter worth about $32,540,000.

Insider Activity

In other Sprouts Farmers Market news, CEO Jack Sinclair sold 10,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.14, for a total transaction of $584,062.32. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 269,980 shares in the company, valued at $14,616,717.20. This trade represents a 3.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Joseph O’Leary sold 2,597 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.57, for a total value of $214,434.29. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 14,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,214,604.70. This represents a 15.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 46,041 shares of company stock worth $3,108,047. Corporate insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Sprouts Farmers Market Stock Up 1.0%

Sprouts Farmers Market stock opened at $49.58 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.76. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. has a 1-year low of $47.35 and a 1-year high of $94.89.

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 28th. The company reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $2.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.33 billion. Sprouts Farmers Market had a net margin of 5.45% and a return on equity of 33.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. will post 4.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SFM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Sprouts Farmers Market from $84.00 to $77.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 25th. Bank of America cut Sprouts Farmers Market from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $47.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. Finally, Roth Capital set a $56.00 price objective on shares of Sprouts Farmers Market in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Sprouts Farmers Market currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.77.

About Sprouts Farmers Market