Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM) is set to report its fiscal second-quarter financial results after the markets close on Wednesday. We have reached Whole Foods infamous May quarter yet again — in the past two years this quarter has been particularly destructive and generally sets a direction for the stock.
The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $0.41 in earnings per share (EPS) on $3.74 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, the company posted EPS of $0.43 and $3.65 billion in revenue.
The most recent quarter was the first time that Whole Foods has won earnings in a while, and in fact the company delivered record sales of $4.8 billion. Management is attributing this to its nine-point plan that it outlined back in November.
In terms of this plan, Whole Foods improved its cost structure and stepped up its value efforts. In the previous quarter, the company announced the national launch of digital coupons within its mobile app. Co-CEO Walter Robb believes this will deliver strong returns to shareholders over the long term as the company improves its price perception, better communicates its higher quality standards and differentiation, and continues to fundamentally evolve the business.
24/7 Wall St.This quarter will be truly indicative if these changes are happening at Whole Foods, or if not we might be expecting more multiyear lows.
A few analysts weighed in on Whole Foods prior to the earnings report:
- RBC Capital reiterated a Buy rating.
- Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating with a $38 price target.
- BMO Capital Markets reiterated a Sell rating with a $23 price target.
- Deutsche Bank reiterated a Hold rating with a $28 price target.
So far in 2016, Whole Foods has underperformed the broad markets, with the stock down 13%. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock is down 40%.
Shares of Whole Foods were trading down 1.3% at $28.39 on Wednesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $29.86 and a 52-week trading range of $28.07 to $47.79.
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