Barclays Maintains an 'Equalweight' on United Natural Foods (UNFI); Q3 Preview

Barclays maintains an 'Equalweight' on United Natural Foods (NASDAQ: UNFI) price target of $40.00.

Analyst, Meredith Adler, said, "Our 3Q12 EPS estimate is $0.56, in line with consensus. We estimate sales for the quarter of $1.37 billion, an increase of 13.7%. Excluding an estimated $60 million from the addition of Safeway (NYSE: SWY) as a new customer and ~$20 million from last year's 3Q for the divested non-foods business, we are forecasting core sales growth of 10.5% across all divisions. We forecast the operating margin to be up 13 bp, with the gross margin down 35 bp and SG&A dollars growing by 10.0%."

Adler keeps an Equalweight rating on shares of UNFI, citing strong revenue growth as opposed to strong EPS growth...in simple terms, sales have gone up, but gross margins have gone down. Also the new warehouse management system is a positive, but may take years to implement and payoff.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on United Natural Foods click here. For more ratings news on United Natural Foods click here.

Shares of United Natural Foods closed at $50.70 yesterday.

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