Whole Foods Market Inc. continued its strong growth, posting a 31% jump in fiscal fourth-quarter profit and its eighth straight quarter of identical-store sales growth. It also hiked its dividend 40% and announced a $200 million share-repurchase program.The company said its annual dividend will go up to 56 cents a share from 40 cents a share, and it intends to open up to 27 stores through September 2012. Over the last 12 months, Whole Foods opened 18 stores.
Whole Foods continues to grow at a faster pace than almost all other U.S. food retailers. During the sluggish economy, the Austin, Texas-based grocer has taken steps to make its prices more competitive. It’s further benefitted from the growing health-consciousness movement, which it said is resonating with the baby-boomer generation as well as the up-and-coming millennials.
For the year to date, conventional grocer Kroger Co. KR +0.27% is up 1%. Safeway Inc. SWY +1.21% is down 14%, while Supervalu Inc. SVU +3.29% is down 18% and Fresh Market Inc. TFM +3.84% is off 1%.
Whole Foods earned $75.5 million, or 42 cents a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 25. That topped the FactSet consensus of analysts’ estimate by a penny. In the same 2010 period, Whole Foods made $57.5 million or 33 cents a share. Sales grew 12% to $2.4 billion and identical-store sales rose 8.4%.
Whole Foods backed its fiscal 2012 forecast for earnings between $2.21 and $2.26 a share. Analysts are looking for $2.26 a share.
No comments:
Post a Comment