United Natural Foods Inc.’s stock
UNFI,
rose 1.6% early Wednesday, after the grocery retailer posted better-than-expected adjusted profit for its fiscal second quarter, offsetting a sales miss. The company posted a net loss of $15 million, or 25 cents a share, for the quarter to Jan. 27, after net income of $19 million, or 31 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding one-time items, the company had adjusted per-share earnings of 7 cents, beating the FactSet consensus for a loss of 2 cents a share. Sales fell to $7.775 billion from $7.816 billion a year ago, just below the $7.873 billion FactSet consensus. “Greater than anticipated benefits from our near-term value creation initiatives and further advances in managing shrink partially offset the expected reduction in procurement gains and start-up costs associated with a new distribution center,” CEO Sandy Douglas said in a statement. The company is now expecting full-year sales to range from $30.5 billion to $31.0 billion, down from prior guidance of $30.9 billion to $31.5 billion. It expects adjusted per-share earnings to range from a loss of 56 cents to EPS of 6 cents, down from prior guidance for a loss of 88 cents to EPS of 38 cents. The stock has fallen 64% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500
SPX,
has gained 25%.
