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Sprouts Farmers (SFM) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Sprouts Farmers (SFM - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $20.26, moving +0.42% from the previous trading session. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.57%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.44%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.61%.

Coming into today, shares of the natural and organic food retailer had gained 0.37% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector lost 1.09%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.83%.

SFM will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect SFM to post earnings of $0.39 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 44.44%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.58 billion, up 15.82% from the year-ago period.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for SFM. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. SFM currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, SFM currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 11.39. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 20.53.

Meanwhile, SFM's PEG ratio is currently 1.23. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Food - Natural Foods Products stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 5.59 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Food - Natural Foods Products industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 194, which puts it in the bottom 24% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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