Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) Trading 4.2% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT) was up 4.2% on Monday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $34.00 to $42.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Sprout Social traded as high as $34.38 and last traded at $34.05. Approximately 165,630 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 489,074 shares. The stock had previously closed at $32.67.

SPT has been the topic of a number of other reports. Barclays dropped their price target on Sprout Social from $48.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Sprout Social from $40.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 11th. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on Sprout Social from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Sprout Social from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Sprout Social in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Sprout Social presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.58.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Paul Barretto sold 13,465 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.45, for a total value of $423,474.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 546,343 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,182,487.35. This trade represents a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Justyn Russell Howard sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.67, for a total transaction of $1,266,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 27,136 shares in the company, valued at $859,397.12. This trade represents a 59.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 80,265 shares of company stock valued at $2,533,406. Insiders own 10.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sprout Social

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its position in shares of Sprout Social by 46.6% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 188,724 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,486,000 after purchasing an additional 60,000 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Sprout Social by 324.0% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 402,947 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,714,000 after acquiring an additional 307,906 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Sprout Social by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,199,451 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,868,000 after purchasing an additional 200,190 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp bought a new position in Sprout Social during the third quarter worth $1,074,000. Finally, Zacks Investment Management acquired a new position in shares of Sprout Social in the third quarter valued at $2,120,000.

Sprout Social Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.95 billion, a P/E ratio of -28.39 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $32.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.07.

Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.28) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $102.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $102.04 million. Sprout Social had a negative return on equity of 40.94% and a negative net margin of 17.24%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Sprout Social, Inc. will post -0.99 EPS for the current year.

About Sprout Social

Sprout Social, Inc designs, develops, and operates a web-based social media management platform in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company provides cloud software for social messaging, data and workflows in a unified system of record, intelligence, and action.