Franklin Resources Inc. Reduces Stake in The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL)

Franklin Resources Inc. reduced its stake in shares of The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL - Free Report) by 12.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 929,291 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 136,650 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 0.92% of Simply Good Foods worth $36,224,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in Simply Good Foods by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,666,190 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $127,473,000 after purchasing an additional 208,070 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Simply Good Foods by 23.5% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,546,239 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $138,232,000 after acquiring an additional 674,618 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its stake in Simply Good Foods by 31.3% in the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 3,031,574 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $118,171,000 after acquiring an additional 722,963 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Simply Good Foods by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,142,679 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $74,515,000 after acquiring an additional 10,477 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners increased its position in Simply Good Foods by 109.0% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,221,285 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $47,287,000 after purchasing an additional 637,038 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.45% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on SMPL shares. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of 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. Morgan Stanley began coverage on Simply Good Foods in a research report on Monday, March 24th. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $36.00 target price on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $39.56.

Simply Good Foods Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of SMPL traded up $0.12 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $36.35. 387,701 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 916,252. The company has a current ratio of 4.23, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.63. The Simply Good Foods Company has a 1 year low of $31.25 and a 1 year high of $40.53. The firm's fifty day moving average is $35.75 and its 200-day moving average is $36.27.

Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 9th. The financial services provider reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.06. Simply Good Foods had a return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 10.40%. The company had revenue of $359.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $354.50 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.40 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Simply Good Foods Company will post 1.78 earnings per share for the current year.

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.