Whole Foods Market's Earnings Beat Last Year's by 19%

Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool
Updated

Whole Foods Market (NAS: WFM) reported earnings on July 31. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
 For the quarter ended July 7 (Q3), Whole Foods Market met expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue grew. GAAP earnings per share grew significantly.


Margins grew across the board.

Revenue details
 Whole Foods Market chalked up revenue of $3.06 billion. The 20 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ predicted revenue of $3.09 billion on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 12% higher than the prior-year quarter's $2.73 billion.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures are normalized by S&P Capital IQ and may vary to maintain comparability with normalized estimates.

EPS details
 EPS came in at $0.38. The 25 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ predicted $0.37 per share. GAAP EPS of $0.38 for Q3 were 19% higher than the prior-year quarter's $0.32 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures are normalized by S&P Capital IQ and may vary to maintain comparability with normalized estimates.

Margin details
 For the quarter, gross margin was 36.6%, 60 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 7.5%, 50 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 4.6%, 30 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. (Margins calculated in GAAP terms.)

Looking ahead
 Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $3.06 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.31.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $13.02 billion. The average EPS estimate is $1.45.

Investor sentiment
 The stock has a four-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 4,714 members out of 5,278 rating the stock outperform, and 564 members rating it underperform. Among 1,650 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 1,565 give Whole Foods Market a green thumbs-up, and 85 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Whole Foods Market is outperform, with an average price target of $56.64.

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The article Whole Foods Market's Earnings Beat Last Year's by 19% originally appeared on Fool.com.

Seth Jayson had no position in any company mentioned here at the time of publication. You can view his stock holdings here. He is co-advisor ofMotley Fool Hidden Gems, which provides new small-cap ideas every month. The Motley Fool recommends Whole Foods Market. The Motley Fool owns shares of Whole Foods Market. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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