Franklin Resources Inc. Decreases Position in The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL)

Franklin Resources Inc. reduced its position in shares of The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) by 12.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 929,291 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 136,650 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Simply Good Foods were worth $36,224,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Simply Good Foods during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its stake in Simply Good Foods by 72.4% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 445 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 533 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Simply Good Foods by 255.5% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,710 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 1,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.45% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on SMPL. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Simply Good Foods in a research note on Monday, March 24th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $36.00 target price on the stock. 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 report on Friday, January 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.56.

Simply Good Foods Price Performance

SMPL stock opened at $33.85 on Friday. The Simply Good Foods Company has a 52-week low of $31.25 and a 52-week high of $40.53. The company has a quick ratio of 2.75, a current ratio of 4.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market cap of $3.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.63. The business has a fifty day moving average of $36.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.27.

Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $341.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $347.32 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. Simply Good Foods’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Simply Good Foods Company will post 1.78 earnings per share for the current year.

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.