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Sprouts Farmers (SFM) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: Here's Why

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In the latest close session, Sprouts Farmers (SFM - Free Report) was down 2.54% at $160.44. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.8% for the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.94%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.97%.

The natural and organic food retailer's stock has dropped by 2.75% in the past month, falling short of the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 1.59% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.12%.

The upcoming earnings release of Sprouts Farmers will be of great interest to investors. In that report, analysts expect Sprouts Farmers to post earnings of $1.23 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 30.85%. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $2.17 billion, showing a 14.51% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

SFM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $5.08 per share and revenue of $8.77 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +35.47% and +13.65%, respectively.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Sprouts Farmers. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the business health and profitability.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Sprouts Farmers currently has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

In terms of valuation, Sprouts Farmers is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 32.42. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.63, so one might conclude that Sprouts Farmers is trading at a premium comparatively.

It is also worth noting that SFM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.91. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. SFM's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.66 as of yesterday's close.

The Food - Natural Foods Products industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 175, putting it in the bottom 29% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.


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