Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) Shares Gap Up on Insider Buying Activity

Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday after an insider bought additional shares in the company. The stock had previously closed at $9.79, but opened at $10.34. Sprout Social shares last traded at $10.1650, with a volume of 255,133 shares.

Specifically, CEO Ryan Paul Barretto purchased 93,984 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 9th. The stock was bought at an average price of $10.67 per share, with a total value of $1,002,809.28. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 875,256 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,338,981.52. The trade was a 12.03% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on SPT. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Sprout Social from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on shares of Sprout Social from $25.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Sprout Social from $26.00 to $13.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Sprout Social in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Sprout Social presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $24.64.

Sprout Social Trading Up 3.8%

The company has a market cap of $601.67 million, a P/E ratio of -12.55 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $10.55 and its 200-day moving average is $13.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $115.59 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $114.86 million. Sprout Social had a negative net margin of 10.59% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.13 earnings per share. Sprout Social has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.770-0.790 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.150-0.170 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Sprout Social, Inc. will post -0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sprout Social

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in Sprout Social by 78.9% during the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 675 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue bought a new stake in shares of Sprout Social during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Sprout Social by 2,754.5% in the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 3,511 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 3,388 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of Sprout Social by 264.2% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 2,745 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC raised its holdings in Sprout Social by 266.3% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,934 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 2,860 shares during the period.

About Sprout Social

Sprout Social (NASDAQ: SPT) is a Chicago-based software company specializing in social media management solutions for businesses of all sizes. The company provides a cloud-based platform designed to help organizations improve their social media presence through a suite of tools for content scheduling, community engagement, social listening and analytics. Sprout Social’s platform is built to streamline the workflows of marketing, customer care and public relations teams by providing a centralized hub for managing multiple social channels.

The company’s product offerings include publishing and scheduling capabilities that allow users to plan and automate social content across networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.