Sprouts Leading Fresh Grocer Group Higher; Wedbush Started Coverage With Outperform - Natural Grocers (NYSE:NGVC), Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM)

Shares of Sprouts Farmers Market

SFM

are the sole name in the Fresh or Organic Grocer sector which traded in positive territory for a majority of Thursday's session. Traders are attributing strength in the stock to some bullish comments from Wedbush analyst Kurt Frederick earlier this morning. Frederick initiated coverage on a number of names in the group:

Sprouts with an Outperform rating and $37 price target;
Whole Foods WFM with a Neutral and $40 target;
The Fresh Market TFM with a Neutral and $34 target; and
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage NGVC with a Neutral and $19 target.

(Click the names of the companies above to find a full-length report on each new rating.) While Sprouts shares are now trading down a few pennies to $30.86, the stock traded as high as $31.10 earlier, up more than six percent. Elsewhere in the sector, shares of Whole Foods are down about 1.9 percent to $39.05, shares of The Fresh Market are down 1.4 percent to $33.96 and shares of Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage are down more than four percent to $17.93.

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