United Natural Foods Q1 loss is narrower than expected but sales fall slightly short

United Natural Foods Inc.’s stock
UNFI,
+0.68%
was moving between gains and losses early Wednesday, after the grocery wholesaler posted a narrower-than-expected fiscal first-quarter adjusted loss, but sales that fell short of estimates. The company had a net loss of $39 million, or 67 cents a share, for the quarter to Oct. 28, after income of $66 million, or $1.07 a share, in the year-earlier period. Its adjusted per-share loss came to 4 cents, narrower than the FactSet consensus for a loss of 32 cents a share. Sales rose to $7.552 billion from $7.532 billion, but were below the $7.612 billion FactSet consensus. The company updated its fiscal 2024 guidance for its net loss and EPS to reflect non-cash asset charges and a gain on a sale, but backed guidance for sales. It now expects a net loss of $120 million to $46 million, compared with prior guidance of $110 million to $36 million. It still expects a loss per share of 88 cents to EPS of 38 cents and sales of $30.9 billion to $31.5 billion. The stock has fallen 58% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.06%
has gained 19%.