Will Whole Foods (WFM) Miss on Earnings? - Analyst Blog

Whole Foods Market, Inc. WFM, one of the leading natural and organic foods supermarkets, is slated to report its second-quarter fiscal 2014 results on May 6, 2014. In the last quarter, it posted a negative surprise of 4.55%. Let's see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Factors this Past Quarter

Whole Foods posted lower-than-expected first-quarter fiscal 2014 results and trimmed its sales and earnings forecast, thereafter. Increasing competition and aggressive pricing weighed upon the company's performance as more and more companies are entering into the organic and natural food business. Comparable-store sales also fell short of management's expectation.

Earnings Whispers?

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Whole Foods is likely to beat earnings estimates this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1, #2 or #3 for this to happen. This is not the case here, as you will see below.

Negative Zacks ESP: ESP for Whole Foods is -2.44%. This is because the Most Accurate estimate stands at 40 cents, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at 41 cents.

Zacks Rank #3 (Hold): Whole Foods' Zacks Rank #3 when combined with a negative ESP makes surprise prediction difficult. We caution against stocks with a Zacks Ranks #4 and #5 (Sell rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions momentum.

Stocks that Warrant a Look

Here are some other companies you may want to consider as our model shows they have the right combination of elements:

Unit Corporation UNT has an Earnings ESP of +2.70% and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Wynn Resorts Ltd. WYNN has an Earnings ESP of +2.87% and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Time Warner TWX has an Earnings ESP of +1.19% and a Zacks Rank #3.