Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) Shares Gap Up Following Insider Buying Activity

Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT) shares gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday after an insider bought additional shares in the company. The stock had previously closed at $9.79, but opened at $10.34. Sprout Social shares last traded at $10.1650, with a volume of 255,133 shares trading hands.

Specifically, CEO Ryan Paul Barretto bought 93,984 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 9th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $10.67 per share, with a total value of $1,002,809.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 875,256 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,338,981.52. This represents a 12.03% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SPT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Sprout Social from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Sprout Social from $26.00 to $13.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Sprout Social in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price target on Sprout Social from $25.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Sprout Social presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $24.64.

Sprout Social Stock Down 0.6%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm has a market cap of $600.19 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.52 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $10.55 and its 200 day moving average is $13.40.

Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.07. Sprout Social had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a negative net margin of 10.59%.The firm had revenue of $115.59 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $114.86 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.13 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sprout Social has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.770-0.790 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.150-0.170 EPS. Analysts forecast that Sprout Social, Inc. will post -0.99 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Sprout Social by 78.9% in the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new position in Sprout Social in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Sprout Social by 2,754.5% in the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 3,511 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 3,388 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its holdings in shares of Sprout Social by 264.2% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 2,745 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of Sprout Social by 266.3% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,934 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,000 after acquiring an additional 2,860 shares during the last quarter.

About Sprout Social

Sprout Social (NASDAQ: SPT) is a Chicago-based software company specializing in social media management solutions for businesses of all sizes. The company provides a cloud-based platform designed to help organizations improve their social media presence through a suite of tools for content scheduling, community engagement, social listening and analytics. Sprout Social’s platform is built to streamline the workflows of marketing, customer care and public relations teams by providing a centralized hub for managing multiple social channels.

The company’s product offerings include publishing and scheduling capabilities that allow users to plan and automate social content across networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.