: United Natural Foods Q1 loss is narrower than expected but sales fall slightly short

United Natural Foods Inc.’s stock UNFI was moving between gains and losses early Wednesday, after the grocery wholesaler posted a narrower-than-expected fiscal first-quarter adjusted loss, but sales that fell short of estimates. The company had a net loss of $39 million, or 67 cents a share, for the quarter to Oct. 28, after income of $66 million, or $1.07 a share, in the year-earlier period. Its adjusted per-share loss came to 4 cents, narrower than the FactSet consensus for a loss of 32 cents a share. Sales rose to $7.552 billion from $7.532 billion, but were below the $7.612 billion FactSet consensus. The company updated its fiscal 2024 guidance for its net loss and EPS to reflect non-cash asset charges and a gain on a sale, but backed guidance for sales. It now expects a net loss of $120 million to $46 million, compared with prior guidance of $110 million to $36 million. It still expects a loss per share of 88 cents to EPS of 38 cents and sales of $30.9 billion to $31.5 billion. The stock has fallen 58% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 19%.

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