This food distributor has nearly tripled in the stock market this year

Shares of United Natural Foods Inc (NYSE: UNFI) popped nearly 20% this morning as the wholesale distributor of health and speciality products gave upbeat guidance for its fiscal 2022, despite weaker-than-expected sales in its recent quarter.

Including the price action on Tuesday, the stock is now up more than 180% on a year-to-date basis. In comparison, the benchmark S&P 500 index has gained only 18.3% this year.

Financial performance

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United Natural Foods reported $43 million in net income for its fiscal Q4 that translates to 69 cents per share. In the same quarter last year, its net income stood at a higher $53 million or 89 cents per share.

On an adjusted basis, the Rhode Island-headquartered firm earned $1.18 per share. UNFI generated $6.735 billion in sales versus the year-ago figure of $6.767 billion. According to FactSet, experts had forecast 80 cents of adjusted EPS on $6.850 billion in sales.

Future outlook

For fiscal 2022, United Natural Foods forecasts up to $3.90 of per-share earnings on $27.8 billion to $28.3 billion in sales. The FactSet consensus, on the other hand, stands at a lower $3.38 of EPS on $27.831 billion in sales.

In the recently concluded year, the NYSE-listed firm noted a 1.5% growth in net sales and a 10.8% increase in adjusted EBITDA, as per the earnings press release.

CEO Sandy Douglas’ remarks

Commenting on the financial update, CEO Sandy Douglas said:

I see significant opportunity to accelerate the value we create and for our customers as well as the opportunity to make our operations more effective and efficient, both leading to continued profitable growth within our estimated $140 billion addressable market.

It was UNFI’s first quarterly results since Douglas joined as the chief executive.