The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) Short Interest Update

The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,130,000 shares, a decline of 20.1% from the October 15th total of 5,170,000 shares. Approximately 4.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 853,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.8 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SMPL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup reduced their price target on Simply Good Foods from $46.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Stephens reduced their price objective on shares of Simply Good Foods from $44.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.78.

Simply Good Foods Price Performance

NASDAQ:SMPL traded down $0.61 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $36.71. 893,176 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 881,363. The company has a current ratio of 4.05, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $34.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.96. Simply Good Foods has a 1-year low of $30.00 and a 1-year high of $43.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.68 billion, a PE ratio of 26.60, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.64.

Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.50. Simply Good Foods had a net margin of 10.46% and a return on equity of 10.23%. The company had revenue of $375.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $373.07 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Simply Good Foods will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Simply Good Foods

In other Simply Good Foods news, Director Brian K. Ratzan sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.38, for a total value of $1,869,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,049,387 shares in the company, valued at approximately $76,606,086.06. This trade represents a 2.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Timothy Richard Kraft sold 21,209 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.50, for a total value of $774,128.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 40,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,462,482. This represents a 34.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 251,108 shares of company stock worth $9,253,356 in the last 90 days. 10.98% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Boston Trust Walden Corp acquired a new position in shares of Simply Good Foods in the 3rd quarter worth $80,270,000. Armistice Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Simply Good Foods during the 2nd quarter worth about $34,582,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Simply Good Foods by 20.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,128,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $178,329,000 after buying an additional 855,070 shares in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Simply Good Foods by 27.7% in the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 3,939,494 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $134,061,000 after buying an additional 854,550 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new position in shares of Simply Good Foods in the third quarter worth approximately $27,391,000. 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.