Short Interest in The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) Drops By 23.6%

The Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ:SMPL) saw a large drop in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,270,000 shares, a drop of 23.6% from the March 31st total of 2,970,000 shares. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 965,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Simply Good Foods in the third quarter worth about $1,028,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its position in Simply Good Foods by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 56,401 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,946,000 after purchasing an additional 746 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Simply Good Foods during the 3rd quarter worth $540,000. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its holdings in Simply Good Foods by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 33,367 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,152,000 after buying an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its position in Simply Good Foods by 27.3% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 15,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $542,000 after buying an additional 3,371 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on SMPL. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on Simply Good Foods from $45.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Simply Good Foods in a report on Friday, April 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $42.00 target price (up from $41.00) on shares of Simply Good Foods in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Simply Good Foods from $48.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Simply Good Foods in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. They set a “hold” rating and a $34.00 price target for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Simply Good Foods currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.14.

Simply Good Foods Price Performance

Shares of Simply Good Foods stock traded down $0.22 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $34.40. 611,141 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,158,045. Simply Good Foods has a fifty-two week low of $30.00 and a fifty-two week high of $43.00. The company has a market cap of $3.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.69. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.72. The company has a current ratio of 4.20, a quick ratio of 3.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 4th. The financial services provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.01. Simply Good Foods had a net margin of 11.12% and a return on equity of 10.12%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Simply Good Foods will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal 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.