Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 44,885 Shares of The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL)

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 953,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 44,885 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.94% of Simply Good Foods worth $37,180,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SMPL. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Simply Good Foods during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Quarry LP raised its position in shares of Simply Good Foods by 64.7% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 533 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Simply Good Foods by 215.6% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,758 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of Simply Good Foods by 31.9% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,084 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $107,000 after acquiring an additional 746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Simply Good Foods by 39.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,450 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $134,000 after acquiring an additional 976 shares during the last quarter. 88.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Simply Good Foods Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of SMPL stock opened at $37.31 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.46, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.73. 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 Simply Good Foods Company has a fifty-two week low of $30.00 and a fifty-two week high of $40.53.

Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $347.32 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.43 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that The Simply Good Foods Company will post 1.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SMPL. Mizuho lowered their price objective 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. Citigroup lowered their price objective 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Simply Good Foods presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.22.

Simply Good Foods Company Profile

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.