Sprouts Farmers Market's Stock Gets a Boost From Amazon Effect

Shares of Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. surged 1.3% in morning trade Thursday, after the specialty grocery store's chief financial office said the company was looking to deepen its relationship with Amazon.com Inc. given the success of the Prime partnership. Speaking at BMO Capital Markets' farm-to-market conference Brad Lukow said while the partnership is in its early days, he has been "quit a little bit surprised by the take up," according to a transcript provided by FactSet. As part of the partnership, Amazon Prime members in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Jose use the Amazon app to access products picked in Sprouts stores, which are delivered to the home. "And then, when we analyze the data, we see a couple things, one is we're seeing great incremental sales growth as a result of this," Brukow said, according to the transcript. "And, the basket is actually--a bigger basket in our typical experience." Amazon shares eased 0.6% in early trade. Sprouts' stock was still down 8.5% year to date, while the S&P 500 was down 0.2%.