Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) Trading Up 5.1% – What’s Next?

The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL)’s share price shot up 5.1% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $39.59 and last traded at $39.40. 836,277 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 38% from the average session volume of 1,347,765 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.50.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on SMPL. Mizuho dropped their target price on Simply Good Foods from $48.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Stephens dropped their target price on Simply Good Foods from $44.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on Simply Good Foods from $46.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.22.

Simply Good Foods Trading Up 6.5 %

The company has a market cap of $4.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.37, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $38.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.35. The company has a quick ratio of 2.75, a current ratio of 4.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.06. Simply Good Foods had a return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 10.40%. The business had revenue of $341.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $347.32 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.43 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Simply Good Foods Company will post 1.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Joseph Scalzo sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.99, for a total transaction of $899,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 139,204 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,009,951.96. This trade represents a 15.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Timothy Richard Kraft sold 76,761 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.60, for a total value of $2,886,213.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 40,068 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,506,556.80. The trade was a 65.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 327,869 shares of company stock valued at $12,139,570 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 9.35% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boston Trust Walden Corp bought a new position in shares of Simply Good Foods in the third quarter valued at approximately $80,270,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Simply Good Foods by 20.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,128,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $178,329,000 after purchasing an additional 855,070 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in shares of Simply Good Foods in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,391,000. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of Simply Good Foods in the third quarter valued at approximately $12,051,000. Finally, Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in shares of Simply Good Foods in the third quarter valued at approximately $7,562,000. Institutional investors own 88.45% of the company’s stock.

About Simply Good Foods

The Simply Good Foods Company operates as a consumer-packaged food and beverage company in North America and internationally. The company develops, markets, and sells snacks and meal replacements. It offers protein bars, ready-to-drink shakes, sweet and salty snacks, cookies, protein chips, and recipes under the Atkins and Quest brand names.