Fairway Group Holdings Corp. Up; Large Competitors Unchanged

A couple of small organic grocers' shares rose sharply Friday after one posted results ahead of expectations. Shares of Lakewood, Colorado-based Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Inc.

gained 12 percent to $31.94 after the company beat fiscal first-quarter profit expectations Thursday on in-line revenue. Natural Grocers, with market capitalization of $718.3 million and 92 stores mainly in the western U.S., also reiterated an earlier forecast for second-quarter results. Perhaps in sympathy, the even smaller New York-based Fairway Group Holdings Corp.

gained 8 percent to $4.77, on above-average volume of about 375,000 shares. Fairway, is expected to report loss of $0.20 cents a share on sales growth of 1.8 percent to $209.4 million on Feb. 5. The company has a market cap of about $200 million and a dozen stores in the New York area, Meanwhile, the elephant in the room, Whole Foods Market, Inc.

, was nearly unchanged Friday at $52.72 a share. Whole Foods has a market cap of about $19 billion and operates more than 360 stores is expected to post revenue growth of 10 percent on flat earnings Feb. 11. Sprouts Farmers Market Inc,

with a market value of $5.6 billion, was also little changed at $36.69, while Fresh Market Inc.

was off $0.44 cents at $38.14.