United Natural Foods (Nasdaq: UNFI) was down 4% in the after-market session after its Q1 earnings fail to beat analyst estimates. On the flip side, revenue for the first quarter exceeded street consensus. The firm touched its new 52-week low of $19.41 during the market hours on Thursday. Post the disappointing earnings, the food distributor was trading at $18 during the extended hours of trading. The company’s stock has been on a free fall in 2018 dwindling more than 60%.
United Natural Foods adjusted earnings came in at $0.59 per share hurt by $68 million expense relating to SUPERVALU deal and restructuring charges. Analysts were expecting the natural foods supplier to report $0.73 per share.
Sales increased 16.7% to $2.87 billion, which topped analyst consensus. The company continues to benefit from strong traction for its products and it’s in the process of beefing up the supply chain to meet the rising customer demand.
Related: https://news.alphastreet.com/united-natural-foods-unfi-stock-q4-2018-earnings-results/
From a customer channel perspective, Supernatural continued its stellar growth story. Sales jumped 20.4% to $1.03 billion contributing nearly 36% to the company’s top line. It’s worth noting that Whole Foods Market is the only customer representing the supernatural channel.
Sales from Independents rose 4.4% to $667 million, while the newly-acquired SUPERVALU contributed $224 million. The company’s margins decreased 50 basis points to 14.44% over last year primarily due to changing customer mix and rising fuel costs resulting in rising freight expenses.
Operating expenses increased 16.3% due to rising labor costs as the company expands its supply chain to meet the surge in demand. Interest expenses jumped nearly 90% mainly attributed to SUPERVALU deal financing.
The food distributor revised its forecast for fiscal 2019 and included the contribution from SUPERVALU as the deal has been closed last quarter. The company expects sales to come in the range of $21.5 billion to $22 billion, and EPS to be between $0.19 loss to $0.01 profit. On an adjusted basis, earnings for the fiscal year is forecasted to come in at $1.69 to $1.89 per share.
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