Why Sprouts Farmers Market Stock Was Climbing Today

Source The Motley Fool

Shares of Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ: SFM) were moving higher today after the natural-foods-focused supermarket chain posted strong results in its third-quarter earnings report and raised its guidance for the full year.

As of 10:34 a.m. ET, the stock was up 8.7% on the news.

A person shopping in a supermarket.

Image source: Getty Images.

Sprouts stock keeps sprouting

Sprouts has differentiated itself from the supermarket industry by offering both specialty products like those you'd find at Whole Foods and the product range of a traditional supermarket. It's also known for competitive prices. In an era when so many Americans are adopting restrictive diets like gluten-free, that approach is paying off.

In the third quarter, same-store sales jumped 8.4%, driving overall revenue up 14% to $1.95 billion, beating estimates at $1.88 billion.

The company continued its expansion, adding nine stores to reach 428 locations across 23 states.

That comparable sales growth fueled gross margin expansion and operating income jumped 40% to $122.5 million. Earnings per share was up from $0.64 to $0.91, which easily beat estimates at $0.77.

CEO Jack Sinclair said:

The third quarter was another exceptional performance by our Sprouts team. We are driving robust traffic growth and continue to execute at a very high level. We remain confident in our long-term growth potential.

What's next for Sprouts

Sprouts stock is now up more than 500% over the last five years as it's put up strong growth for years.

Guidance for the fourth quarter and full year showed that momentum will continue as the company expects comparable sales of 8% to 10% and adjusted earnings per share of $0.67 to $0.71.

If the company can continue to deliver high-single-digit comparable sales growth, the stock should keep moving higher as it has plenty of white space to expand.

Should you invest $1,000 in Sprouts Farmers Market right now?

Before you buy stock in Sprouts Farmers Market, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Sprouts Farmers Market wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $853,860!*

Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of October 28, 2024

Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Sprouts Farmers Market. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Disclaimer: For information purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
placeholder
The Fed will sit still on October 28 — but 100 of 100 economists now expect a December hikeA Reuters poll run October 16-20 found 94 of 100 economists expecting the Fed to hold at 3.75-4.00% on October 28 — and all 100 expecting a hike in December, against less than half a month earlier. The market is close to the same price, with CME FedWatch at roughly 17% for October and 82.8% for December. With the Fed in blackout since October 17, here are the five dates that decide the rest of the year, what each one is priced for, and the two directions each can take.
Author  Irene Q.
Oct 22, Thu
A Reuters poll run October 16-20 found 94 of 100 economists expecting the Fed to hold at 3.75-4.00% on October 28 — and all 100 expecting a hike in December, against less than half a month earlier. The market is close to the same price, with CME FedWatch at roughly 17% for October and 82.8% for December. With the Fed in blackout since October 17, here are the five dates that decide the rest of the year, what each one is priced for, and the two directions each can take.
placeholder
Big Tech's $800 billion AI bill faces its first real test — free cash flow is the judgeAlphabet and Microsoft report after the close on October 28, Amazon on October 29, with hyperscaler AI capex running near $800 billion a year. Meta's negative free cash flow and 9.40% drop on October 22 was the warning; this week's prints decide whether cloud growth and backlog can pay for the buildout. Here are the consensus numbers, the free-cash-flow table and the two-sided test.
Author  Irene Q.
Oct 26, Mon
Alphabet and Microsoft report after the close on October 28, Amazon on October 29, with hyperscaler AI capex running near $800 billion a year. Meta's negative free cash flow and 9.40% drop on October 22 was the warning; this week's prints decide whether cloud growth and backlog can pay for the buildout. Here are the consensus numbers, the free-cash-flow table and the two-sided test.
placeholder
Tesla jumps 5% as Barclays puts a $450 target on the SpaceX merger — the chart was already pointing to 431Tesla closed at $391.62 on October 26, up 5.21%, after Barclays upgraded the stock to Overweight and lifted its target to $450 from $370, citing a sharp inflection in Robotaxi miles and a potential SpaceX merger. The move also completed a double bottom at $345.88 and $349.33, with a neckline at $388.56 and a measured target of $431.24. Here is what the upgrade actually says, why the chart and the analyst now point the same way, and what would break the target.
Author  Irene Q.
Yesterday 05: 30
Tesla closed at $391.62 on October 26, up 5.21%, after Barclays upgraded the stock to Overweight and lifted its target to $450 from $370, citing a sharp inflection in Robotaxi miles and a potential SpaceX merger. The move also completed a double bottom at $345.88 and $349.33, with a neckline at $388.56 and a measured target of $431.24. Here is what the upgrade actually says, why the chart and the analyst now point the same way, and what would break the target.
placeholder
Anthropic files for a $2 trillion IPO — the $80.7 billion loss is the decoy, the $450 billion compute bill is the riskAnthropic publicly filed its S-1 on October 26, revealing $16.29 billion of first-half revenue (+1,304% year over year) and a $80.7 billion net loss — of which $72.4 billion is a non-cash convertible-note charge. The real number is the $450 billion of signed, mostly non-cancelable compute commitments. Here is what the filing says, why NVDA, ARM and MU are the tradeable read-through, and the conditions that decide whether the AI trade passes its first public valuation test.
Author  Irene Q.
Yesterday 06: 02
Anthropic publicly filed its S-1 on October 26, revealing $16.29 billion of first-half revenue (+1,304% year over year) and a $80.7 billion net loss — of which $72.4 billion is a non-cash convertible-note charge. The real number is the $450 billion of signed, mostly non-cancelable compute commitments. Here is what the filing says, why NVDA, ARM and MU are the tradeable read-through, and the conditions that decide whether the AI trade passes its first public valuation test.
placeholder
Fed October Rate Decision Preview: Rate Hike Pause Has Become Consensus, How Will US Stocks, Dollar, and Gold React?The Federal Reserve will announce its October interest rate decision at 14:00 Eastern Time on October 28, and Fed Chair Warsh will hold a press conference at 14:30. Markets currently wide
Author  TradingKey
23 hours ago
The Federal Reserve will announce its October interest rate decision at 14:00 Eastern Time on October 28, and Fed Chair Warsh will hold a press conference at 14:30. Markets currently wide
goTop
quote