As a fundamental narrative, Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) makes plenty of sense amid the rising challenges facing the consumer economy. Yes, it’s true that the May jobs report came in much hotter than expected, which implies resilience for the underlying post-pandemic recovery effort. At the same time, rumblings in the derivatives market suggests that not everything is well with SFM stock.
To be sure, the charts don’t provide much indication that Sprouts Farmers is struggling. Since the beginning of this year, SFM stock gained slightly over 14% of equity value. For context, that comes in just under the performance of the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period. However, in the trailing year, SFM moved up almost 34%. In sharp contrast, the S&P 500 gained a bit over 15%.
