The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $40.22.

A number of analysts have recently commented on SMPL shares. Stephens cut their price target on Simply Good Foods from $44.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Mizuho cut their target price on Simply Good Foods from $48.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Simply Good Foods from $46.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 14th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Joseph Scalzo sold 2,374 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.23, for a total value of $86,010.02. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 136,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,957,350.90. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Timothy Richard Kraft sold 76,761 shares of Simply Good Foods stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now owns 40,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,506,556.80. The trade was a 65.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 302,869 shares of company stock valued at $11,239,820 in the last 90 days. 9.35% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Simply Good Foods

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its position in shares of Simply Good Foods by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 48,458 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Edge Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in Simply Good Foods in the 4th quarter valued at about $466,000. South Dakota Investment Council acquired a new position in Simply Good Foods in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,191,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its holdings in Simply Good Foods by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 990,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $38,610,000 after acquiring an additional 256,200 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Simply Good Foods during the fourth quarter worth approximately $249,000. Institutional investors own 88.45% of the company’s stock.

Simply Good Foods Price Performance

Shares of SMPL opened at $37.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a current ratio of 4.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.74 billion, a PE ratio of 26.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.42. Simply Good Foods has a 52-week low of $30.00 and a 52-week high of $40.53.

Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.06. Simply Good Foods had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The company had revenue of $341.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $347.32 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Simply Good Foods will post 1.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.