Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) Shares Gap Down to $37.12

Vital Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ:VITL) gapped down prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $37.12, but opened at $35.37. Vital Farms shares last traded at $35.17, with a volume of 202,152 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on VITL. William Blair assumed coverage on shares of Vital Farms in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Vital Farms from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Lake Street Capital boosted their price objective on Vital Farms from $26.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. DA Davidson upped their price target on Vital Farms from $28.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 13th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on Vital Farms from $19.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.80.

Vital Farms Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.72 and a beta of 0.98. 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 has a 50-day moving average of $42.21 and a 200-day moving average of $28.60.

Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $147.93 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $139.87 million. Vital Farms had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 7.48%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Vital Farms, Inc. will post 0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Stephanie Coon sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.02, for a total value of $205,100.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 53,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,192,519. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Russell Diez-Canseco sold 9,735 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.00, for a total value of $292,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 403,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,110,790. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Stephanie Coon sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.02, for a total transaction of $205,100.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 53,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,192,519. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 203,056 shares of company stock valued at $8,275,393. 30.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vital Farms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL bought a new stake in Vital Farms in the 4th quarter valued at $304,000. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vital Farms in the first quarter valued at about $656,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Vital Farms by 2,006.1% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 148,541 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,454,000 after acquiring an additional 141,488 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC bought a new position in Vital Farms during the first quarter worth about $1,003,000. Finally, Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its stake in Vital Farms by 116.1% in the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 862,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,056,000 after purchasing an additional 463,471 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.59% of the company’s stock.

Vital Farms Company Profile

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.