Vital Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ:VITL) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Vital Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ:VITL) has earned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $43.71.

VITL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Vital Farms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Vital Farms in a research report on Friday, February 28th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Vital Farms from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. DA Davidson lowered their price target on Vital Farms from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Vital Farms in a report on Thursday, March 13th.

Vital Farms Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VITL opened at $31.59 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a PE ratio of 28.21 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 3.24, a quick ratio of 2.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Vital Farms has a 12-month low of $21.30 and a 12-month high of $48.41. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.71.

Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $165.99 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $160.32 million. Vital Farms had a return on equity of 22.29% and a net margin of 8.68%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Vital Farms will post 1.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Joanne Bal sold 28,246 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.10, for a total transaction of $1,273,894.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 59,371 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,677,632.10. This trade represents a 32.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Matthew Ohayer sold 24,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.19, for a total transaction of $1,036,560.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 7,014,890 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $302,973,099.10. This represents a 0.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 145,474 shares of company stock valued at $6,171,500 over the last quarter. 27.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vital Farms

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cim LLC grew its holdings in Vital Farms by 80.7% during the fourth quarter. Cim LLC now owns 12,433 shares of the company’s stock worth $469,000 after acquiring an additional 5,554 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Vital Farms by 19.4% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 88,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,343,000 after purchasing an additional 14,432 shares in the last quarter. Sapience Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Vital Farms by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. Sapience Investments LLC now owns 77,698 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,928,000 after purchasing an additional 10,235 shares in the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG acquired a new position in shares of Vital Farms in the 4th quarter valued at $892,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Vital Farms by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 733,952 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,663,000 after buying an additional 129,621 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.59% of the company’s stock.

About Vital Farms

Vital Farms, Inc, a food company, provides pasture-raised products in the United States. It offers shell eggs, butter, hard-boiled eggs, and liquid whole eggs. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.