United Natural Foods (UNFI) Earning Somewhat Favorable News Coverage, Report Finds

News articles about United Natural Foods (NASDAQ:UNFI) have been trending somewhat positive this week, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. Accern identifies positive and negative media coverage by reviewing more than twenty million blog and news sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. United Natural Foods earned a news sentiment score of 0.12 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media coverage about the company an impact score of 46.3652197768221 out of 100, indicating that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the next several days.

Here are some of the headlines that may have effected Accern Sentiment’s rankings:

Get United Natural Foods alerts: Can United Natural's Growth Strategies Wipe Off Cost Woes? (finance.yahoo.com) United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages (americanbankingnews.com) Free Post Earnings Research Report: United Natural Foods’ Sales Jumped 11.8%; Adjusted EPS Soared 35.1% (finance.yahoo.com) 4 Stocks That Will Benefit From the Weight Crisis (investorplace.com)

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup cut their price target on United Natural Foods from $53.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 21st. ValuEngine upgraded United Natural Foods from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 18th. Pivotal Research cut their price target on United Natural Foods from $34.00 to $33.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 13th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded United Natural Foods from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, June 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on United Natural Foods from $50.00 to $41.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.51.

Shares of United Natural Foods traded down $0.01, hitting $42.99, during midday trading on Tuesday, according to MarketBeat Ratings. 728 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 530,642. United Natural Foods has a 52 week low of $32.52 and a 52 week high of $52.69. The company has a market capitalization of $2.15 billion, a PE ratio of 16.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

United Natural Foods (NASDAQ:UNFI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 6th. The company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.11. United Natural Foods had a net margin of 1.72% and a return on equity of 9.06%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.77 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. sell-side analysts expect that United Natural Foods will post 3.21 earnings per share for the current year.

In related news, insider Joseph J. Traficanti sold 6,680 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.11, for a total value of $314,694.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 9,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $459,558.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Steven Spinner sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.23, for a total transaction of $339,225.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 100,633 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,551,630.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

United Natural Foods Company Profile

United Natural Foods, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, distributes natural, organic, and specialty foods and non-food products in the United States and Canada. The company operates through three divisions: Wholesale, Retail, and Manufacturing and Branded Products. The Wholesale division offers grocery and general merchandise, produce, perishables and frozen foods, nutritional supplements and sports nutrition, bulk and foodservice products, and personal care products.