United Natural Foods (Nasdaq: UNFI) will look to match Wall Street forecasts for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Nov. 30. United Natural Foods and its subsidiaries are distributors and retailers of natural, organic, and specialty products throughout the United States.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on United Natural Foods with nine out of 13 analysts rating it hold. Analysts like United Natural Foods better than competitor SUPERVALU overall. Two out of 12 analysts rate SUPERVALU a buy compared to four out of 13 for United Natural Foods. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $1.19 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 13.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.41 per share. Estimates range from $0.38 to $0.43.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 91.2% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 86.6% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools are keen on United Natural Foods and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 138 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of United Natural Foods, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
United Natural Foods' profit has risen year over year by an average of 12.2% over the past five quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q4

Q3

Q2

Q1

Gross Margin

18.6%

18.2%

17.8%

18.3%

Operating Margin

2.5%

3.2%

2.8%

2.8%

Net Margin

1.5%

1.9%

1.7%

1.7%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.