LB Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Sprout Social, Inc. $SPT

LB Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Sprout Social, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPT) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 190,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,455,000. Sprout Social comprises 1.6% of LB Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Nordea Investment Management AB bought a new stake in Sprout Social during the third quarter worth $1,702,000. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new position in Sprout Social in the 2nd quarter valued at $880,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC grew its stake in Sprout Social by 20.4% in the 2nd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 237,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,964,000 after purchasing an additional 40,223 shares during the period. CenterBook Partners LP grew its stake in Sprout Social by 254.4% in the 2nd quarter. CenterBook Partners LP now owns 118,840 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,485,000 after purchasing an additional 85,309 shares during the period. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Sprout Social by 357.9% during the 2nd quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 69,813 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,460,000 after purchasing an additional 54,567 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on SPT. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Sprout Social from $26.00 to $13.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Sprout Social from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price target on shares of Sprout Social from $25.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Sprout Social in a research note on Thursday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sprout Social has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $24.64.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Aaron Edward Frederick Rankin purchased 90,661 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $11.14 per share, with a total value of $1,009,963.54. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 114,969 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,280,754.66. The trade was a 372.97% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Justyn Russell Howard sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.70, for a total value of $428,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 7,417 shares in the company, valued at approximately $79,361.90. The trade was a 84.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 10.12% of the company’s stock.

Sprout Social Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SPT opened at $9.80 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $580.05 million, a PE ratio of -12.10 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $10.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $12.87. Sprout Social, Inc. has a twelve month low of $9.16 and a twelve month high of $35.18.

Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $115.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $114.86 million. Sprout Social had a negative net margin of 10.59% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. Sprout Social’s revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.13 EPS. 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. Equities analysts forecast that Sprout Social, Inc. will post -0.99 EPS for the current year.

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.