United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

United Natural Foods, Inc. (NYSE:UNFI)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Saturday . The stock traded as high as $55.87 and last traded at $55.4160, with a volume of 786484 shares. The stock had previously closed at $52.97.

Analyst Ratings Changes

UNFI has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of United Natural Foods from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of United Natural Foods in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of United Natural Foods from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of United Natural Foods from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of United Natural Foods from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.63.

United Natural Foods Trading Up 4.6%

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $49.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.90. The stock has a market cap of $3.37 billion, a P/E ratio of -42.63 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 0.52.

United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, March 10th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $7.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.11 billion. United Natural Foods had a negative net margin of 0.25% and a positive return on equity of 6.05%. The business’s revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.22 earnings per share. United Natural Foods has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.300-2.700 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that United Natural Foods, Inc. will post 2.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Danielle Benedict sold 4,807 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.00, for a total transaction of $249,964.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 98,470 shares in the company, valued at $5,120,440. This represents a 4.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Revisor Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in United Natural Foods by 4.7% during the first quarter. Revisor Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,188 shares of the company’s stock valued at $279,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in United Natural Foods by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its position in United Natural Foods by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 13,894 shares of the company’s stock valued at $468,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares during the period. Optimize Financial Inc lifted its position in United Natural Foods by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Optimize Financial Inc now owns 20,963 shares of the company’s stock valued at $706,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Arax Advisory Partners lifted its position in United Natural Foods by 37.4% during the fourth quarter. Arax Advisory Partners now owns 1,102 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.63% of the company’s stock.

United Natural Foods Company Profile

United Natural Foods, Inc (NYSE: UNFI) is a leading distributor of natural, organic and specialty foods in North America. Founded in 1976 and headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, the company has grown through strategic acquisitions and organic expansion to become one of the largest food distributors serving retail, foodservice and e-commerce customers.

UNFI’s core business centers on the procurement, warehousing and distribution of a broad portfolio of products, including fresh produce, groceries, frozen foods, dairy, bakery items, beverages, supplements and household essentials.