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

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Simply Good Foods

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. McCollum Christoferson Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Simply Good Foods by 2.8% during the first quarter. McCollum Christoferson Group LLC now owns 135,609 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,615,000 after purchasing an additional 3,635 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Simply Good Foods by 248.8% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 333,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,358,000 after purchasing an additional 238,064 shares during the last quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. acquired a new position in Simply Good Foods during the 1st quarter worth about $1,427,000. Norden Group LLC lifted its holdings in Simply Good Foods by 1,949.9% during the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 210,690 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,170,000 after buying an additional 200,412 shares during the period. Finally, Congress Wealth Management LLC DE grew its position in shares of Simply Good Foods by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 198,854 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,767,000 after buying an additional 10,376 shares during the last quarter. 88.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Simply Good Foods Price Performance

SMPL traded down $0.22 on Friday, reaching $34.40. The stock had a trading volume of 611,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,158,045. The company has a current ratio of 4.20, a quick ratio of 3.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market capitalization 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. Simply Good Foods has a fifty-two week low of $30.00 and a fifty-two week high of $43.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $33.78 and a 200-day moving average of $36.72.

Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 4th. The financial services provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.01. Simply Good Foods had a return on equity of 10.12% and a net margin of 11.12%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Simply Good Foods will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $42.00 target price on shares of Simply Good Foods in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $42.00 price objective (up from $41.00) on shares of Simply Good Foods in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. DA Davidson lowered their target price on Simply Good Foods from $39.00 to $34.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on shares of Simply Good Foods from $45.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.14.

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.