Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Acquires 53,307 Shares of Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT) by 24.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 272,501 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 53,307 shares during the quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Sprout Social were worth $8,369,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Sprout Social by 324.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 402,947 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,714,000 after purchasing an additional 307,906 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp bought a new position in Sprout Social during the third quarter valued at about $1,074,000. Zacks Investment Management acquired a new position in Sprout Social in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,120,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sprout Social by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,175,538 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,179,000 after purchasing an additional 22,320 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Sprout Social by 339.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 90,234 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,623,000 after purchasing an additional 69,704 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on SPT shares. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Sprout Social from $45.00 to $34.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on shares of Sprout Social from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Sprout Social from $28.00 to $25.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Sprout Social from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Sprout Social from $34.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.85.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Justyn Russell Howard sold 40,000 shares of Sprout Social 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 27,136 shares in the company, valued at $859,397.12. The trade was a 59.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Karen Walker sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.26, for a total transaction of $151,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 30,665 shares in the company, valued at $927,922.90. This represents a 14.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 101,800 shares of company stock valued at $3,242,332. Insiders own 10.97% of the company’s stock.

Sprout Social Trading Up 1.7 %

SPT stock opened at $23.97 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $30.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Sprout Social, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $22.95 and a fifty-two week high of $62.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.97 and a beta of 1.11.

Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.35). The business had revenue of $107.09 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.74 million. Sprout Social had a negative net margin of 17.24% and a negative return on equity of 40.94%. Analysts expect that Sprout Social, Inc. will post -0.99 EPS for the current fiscal 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.