United Natural Foods Q2 earnings and sales tops estimates

United Natural Foods (UNFI) second quarter 2019 earnings and sales figures beat analysts’ estimates sending the stock in the north direction. The food distributor earned 44 cents per share on an adjusted basis, surpassing the Wall Street’s predictions of 24 cents per share. Sales stood at $6.14 billion for the recently ended quarter versus the analysts expectation of $6 billion.

Shares of United Natural Foods traded up about 4% initially after the earnings announcement. However, the stock pared its gains later in the after-hours of trading.

United Natural Foods, which switched its trading of common stock from Nasdaq to NYSE on January 2, 2019, lifted the adjusted EPS guidance for FY19. Adjusted EPS is expected to be between $2.00 and $2.40 versus the prior estimated range of $1.69 to $1.89.

The company expects loss per share to be between $6.50 and $6.10 compared to the prior estimate of loss of 19 cents per share to earnings of 1 cent per share. Sales estimate for FY19 is maintained at $21.5 billion to $22.0 billion range.

On a GAAP basis, United Natural Foods reported a loss of $6.72 per share compared to a profit of $0.99 per share in the prior-year quarter. The recently ended quarter’s results were hurt by the result of goodwill and asset impairment charges as well as restructuring, acquisition, and integration related expenses and increased interest expense.

“We experienced higher than anticipated costs, largely associated with our network realignment projects resulting primarily from Supervalu’s previous acquisitions, which we believe will be short-term in nature,” said CEO Steven Spinner.

It’s worth noting that for the first quarter, the company reported disappointing earnings due to an expense relating to Supervalu deal and restructuring charges.

The Providence, R.I.-based company’s stock, which ended Tuesday’s trading session down 0.86% at $15.01, jumped 42% since the beginning of 2019, while it dropped 26% in the past three months.

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