United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) Stock Price Up 4.4% – Time to Buy?

United Natural Foods, Inc. (NYSE:UNFI)’s share price shot up 4.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $54.96 and last traded at $55.2960. 147,752 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 700,727 shares. The stock had previously closed at $52.97.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

United Natural Foods Stock Up 5.0%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 0.52. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $48.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.79. The company has a market cap of $3.38 billion, a PE ratio of -42.77 and a beta of 0.81.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Danielle Benedict sold 4,807 shares of United Natural Foods stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 98,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,120,440. The trade was a 4.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On United Natural Foods

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in United Natural Foods by 0.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,664,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $137,824,000 after purchasing an additional 28,119 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of United Natural Foods by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,746,073 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,307,000 after purchasing an additional 142,485 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of United Natural Foods by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,389,186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,444,000 after purchasing an additional 23,967 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of United Natural Foods by 155.1% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,732,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,047,000 after purchasing an additional 1,053,081 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of United Natural Foods by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,468,591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,456,000 after purchasing an additional 41,674 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.63% of the company’s stock.

About United Natural Foods

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.