Insider Trading Fri 11/24/23

Notable purchases -- CEOs active in HTLD, YUMC; notable sales -- execs active in SFM, RPD, APPF

Buyers:

• Impinj (PI) 10% owner bought 37,513 shares worth approx. $3.11 mln.
• Heartland Express (HTLD) CEO bought 95,602 shares worth approx. $1.25 mln.
• Yum China (YUMC) CEO bought 14K shares worth approx. $647K.

Sellers:

• Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) CEO sold 61,092 shares worth approx. $2.50 mln.
• Rapid7 (RPD) COO sold 38,577 shares worth approx. $2.02 mln.
• AppFolio (APPF) CEO sold 7,430 shares worth approx. $1.49 mln.

Unusual Options Activity, Fri 5/12/23

The following options are exhibiting notable trading, potentially indicating changing sentiment toward the underlying stocks, and/or potentially representing positioning for increased volatility.

Bullish Call Activity:

• CVNA May 11 calls  are seeing interest with the underlying stock down 11% (volume: 13.5K, open int: 580, implied vol: ~317%, prev day implied vol: 163%). 5030 contracts traded in a single transaction. Co is expected to report earnings early August.
• FHN May 10 calls (volume: 3280, open int: 120, implied vol: ~68%, prev day implied vol: 62%). Co is expected to report earnings mid-July.
• SFM May 38 calls (volume: 3260, open int: 0, implied vol: ~30%, prev day implied vol: 26%). Co is expected to report earnings early August.
• NRG Jun 33 calls (volume: 2370, open int: 20, implied vol: ~34%, prev day implied vol: 31%). 1080 contracts traded in a single transaction. Co is expected to report earnings late July.
  

Bearish Put Activity:

• PARA May 15 puts (volume: 1740, open int: 310, implied vol: ~91%, prev day implied vol: 54%).  1270 contracts traded in a single transaction. Co is expected to report earnings early August.
• PLAY May 25 puts (volume: 2240, open int: 10, implied vol: ~72%, prev day implied vol: 54%). Co is scheduled to present at an investor day on Tuesday, May 16. Co is expected to report earnings early June.
  

Sentiment: The CBOE Put/Call ratio is currently: 0.90, VIX: (17.58, +0.65, +3.8%).
May 19 is options expiration -- the last day to trade May equity options.

-=Amazon.com (AMZN) eliminates its $14.99 monthly fee for grocery delivery to Amazon Prime members

The shares of some grocery sellers fell Tuesday, in the wake of Amazon.com Inc.'s (AMZN) announcement that it was eliminating its $14.99 monthly fee for grocery delivery to Amazon Prime members.

Kroger Co. (KR) dropped 1.4%, after closing Monday at a 4-week high.
Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM, -1.38% fell 0.6%, Target Corp. TGT, -0.98% slipped 0.2% and Walmart Inc. WMT, -1.07% lost 0.4%, while Costco Wholesale Corp. COST, -0.22% inched up less than 0.1%. Amazon shares eased 0.2%.

AMZN,KR,SFM,TGT,COST,WMT

-=Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) reported earnings on Thur 2 Nov 2017 (b/o)

Sprouts Farmers Market beats by $0.05, beats on revs; raises FY17 guidance above consensus

• Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.23 per share, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.18; revenues rose 16.4% year/year to $1.21 bln vs the $1.18 bln Capital IQ Consensus.
  • Comparable store sales growth of 4.6%
  • Gross profit for the quarter increased 19% to $346 million
  • Direct store expense  for the quarter increased 15% to $250 million, or 20.7% of sales, compared to 20.9% in the same period in 2016.
  • Opened 8 new stores during quarter
• Co issuesupside guidance for FY17, sees EPS of $0.98-0.99 (prior $0.88-0.92) vs. $0.93 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY17 revs of $4.633-4.653 bln (prior $4.572-4.613 bln) vs. $4.62 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
  • Increases comp sales growth to +2.5-3% (prior +1.5-2%)
  • Reaffirms guidance that co will open 32 new stores in 2017.  

Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) reported earnings on Thur 5 Nov 2015 (before open)

** charts after earnings **

Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) reports Q2 2013 results

• The IPO was just 3 weeks ago 

** chart before earnings **

After Hours: 40.05 +1.46 (3.78%)

Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) reports Q2 adjusted EPS of $0.14, no estimates; Revenue increased 45% y/y to $622.4 mln (SFM) 38.59 +1.37 : Second quarter net sales growth was driven by the Sunflower Transaction, an increase in comparable store sales growth and new store openings. Net sales increased 22% compared to pro forma sales for the same period of 2012, driven by pro forma comparable store sales growth of 10.8% and strong performance in new stores opened. The pro forma comparable store sales growth increase resulted from a balanced rise in traffic and basket size and continued strong performance across departments.


Gross Margin: Gross profit increased 43% to $187.0 million resulting in a gross profit margin of 30.1% of sales, or a decrease of 30 basis points, from the same period in 2012.

New Stores: During second quarter 2013, the Company opened six new stores, four in California and one each in Oklahoma and Texas. An additional five stores have been opened in the third quarter to date bringing 2013 new store openings to 17, for a total of 165 stores in eight states as of Aug. 22, 2013. The Company expects to open two more stores in 2013, bringing total new stores in 2013 to 19.

Guidance: For FY13, company expects 19-21% growth compared to pro forma net sales in FY12; Pro forma comparable store sales growth of 8.5 to 9.0%; Net Income of $44.0 million to $47.0 million; Adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.41 to $0.43; and Capital expenditures of $70.0 million to $75.0 million, net of landlord reimbursements.