WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Grocery chain Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM), Wednesday reported a 49 percent increase in fourth quarter profit, as revenues improved on a double-digit growth. Moving ahead, the company backed its earnings outlook for the full year 2013, and warned of the impact of Superstorm Sandy on its first quarter sales.
Co-chief Executive John Mackey said, 'The pace of new store openings and lease signings continues to increase, and our accelerated growth plans are on track. We expect healthy comparable store sales growth and continuing operating margin improvement in fiscal year 2013.'
Whole Foods, which focuses mainly on natural and organic foods, said sales for the quarter grew 24 percent to $2.91 billion from $2.35 billion last year. Fourth-quarter 2012 was a 13-week quarter. Excluding the extra one-week, sales were $2.69 billion.
Twenty-two analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated revenues of $2.91 billion for the quarter.
Comparable store sales for the quarter increased 8.5 percent. Comparable store sales is a financial metric used by most retailers to measure performance of stores open for at least a year.
Gross margins for the three-month period advanced 76 basis points to 35.3 percent, helped by improvements in both cost of goods sold and occupancy costs as a percent of sales.
Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods' fourth-quarter profit rose to $112.73 million or $0.60 per share from $75.48 million or $0.42 per share last year. Excluding the impact of an extra week, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.56 per share.
On average, 25 analysts expected earnings of $0.60 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Looking forward to the full year 2013, the company continues to expect earnings of $2.83 to $2.87 per share. Analysts currently expect earnings of $2.90 per share for fiscal year 2013.
Whole Foods anticipates full year 2013 sales growth of 12 to 14 percent on a comparable store sales growth of 6.5 to 8.5 percent.
Whole Foods said hurricane Sandy negatively impacted sales for the first five weeks of the first quarter, particularly in the Northeast region. The company expects to record a one-time charge in the first quarter for estimated uninsured losses.
Whole Foods boosted its dividend by 43 percent to $0.20 per share from $0.14 per share. The dividend is payable on January 29, 2013 to shareholders as of January 18, 2013.
WFM closed Wednesday's trading at $95.93, down $2.07 or 2.11%, on a volume of 3.7 million shares, on the Nasdaq. In after hours, the stock further lost $1.43 or 1.49%.
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