Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) Receives “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) in a report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $41.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock.

SMPL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Simply Good Foods from $48.00 to $38.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a hold rating and issued a $42.00 price target (up from $41.00) on shares of Simply Good Foods in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Mizuho reiterated a buy rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Simply Good Foods in a report on Friday, April 5th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Simply Good Foods from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Simply Good Foods in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $40.29.

Simply Good Foods Price Performance

Shares of Simply Good Foods stock opened at $36.45 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $33.75 and a 200 day moving average of $36.78. Simply Good Foods has a 12 month low of $30.00 and a 12 month high of $43.00. The firm has a market cap of $3.64 billion, a PE ratio of 26.22, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.69. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 10.12% and a net margin of 11.12%. On average, research analysts expect that Simply Good Foods will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Simply Good Foods

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SMPL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Simply Good Foods during the fourth quarter valued at $39,991,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Simply Good Foods by 42.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,761,132 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $95,314,000 after buying an additional 820,801 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners purchased a new stake in shares of Simply Good Foods during the fourth quarter valued at $20,242,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Simply Good Foods by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,930,744 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $76,457,000 after buying an additional 281,603 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Simply Good Foods by 2.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,992,510 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $379,461,000 after buying an additional 259,144 shares during the last quarter. 88.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.