Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) Reaches New 12-Month High at $45.42

Vital Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ:VITL)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $45.42 and last traded at $45.40, with a volume of 40929 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $44.74.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. William Blair assumed coverage on shares of Vital Farms in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. TheStreet upgraded shares of Vital Farms from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Lake Street Capital upped their price target on shares of Vital Farms from $26.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Vital Farms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Vital Farms from $19.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Vital Farms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.40.

Vital Farms Trading Up 1.1 %

The stock has a market cap of $1.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.38 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a current ratio of 3.10. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.64.

Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.20. Vital Farms had a net margin of 7.48% and a return on equity of 19.58%. The company had revenue of $147.93 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $139.87 million. Research analysts expect that Vital Farms, Inc. will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Vital Farms

In other news, CEO Russell Diez-Canseco sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.03, for a total transaction of $750,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 313,178 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,838,845.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Matthew Ohayer sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.15, for a total value of $132,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,438,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,595,457.55. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Russell Diez-Canseco sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.03, for a total transaction of $750,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 313,178 shares in the company, valued at $7,838,845.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 201,623 shares of company stock worth $7,062,766 in the last 90 days. 30.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Vital Farms by 9.2% in the 1st quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,650,008 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,613,000 after buying an additional 224,335 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Vital Farms by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,801,952 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,895,000 after purchasing an additional 152,743 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC boosted its holdings in Vital Farms by 116.1% in the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 862,644 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,056,000 after purchasing an additional 463,471 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in Vital Farms by 79.3% in the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 524,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,075,000 after purchasing an additional 231,985 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Vital Farms by 19.4% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 477,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,109,000 after purchasing an additional 77,710 shares during the period. 98.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Vital Farms

Vital Farms, Inc, a food company, provides pasture-raised products in the United States. It offers shell eggs, butter, hard-boiled eggs, and liquid whole eggs. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.