Hello Friends! As always PLEASE discuss ALL investment ideas you may glean from this website with your own financial advisor as I am just an amateur investor who loves to write and the ideas I post here may or may not be profitable for you and also may or may not be appropriate for you!
Anyhow, Whole Foods Markets, Inc. (WFMI) showed up on the lists of greatest percentage gainers today and it looks very interesting. I do not own any shares of Whole Foods but I confess to spending time on occasions wandering the aisles astounded at the fascinating merchandise and exotic range of food supplements and vitamins. WFMI had a great day today closing at $64.68 up $5.95 or 10.13% on the day.
According to money.cnn.com, Whole Foods "...engages in the sale of natural food and nutritional products, primarily through its 143 natural foods supermarkets (as of 4/03) and direct marketing of nutritional supplements."
As reported on NYTimes on the Web on 11/12/03, Whole Foods reported their fourth quarter results. As initially carried by PRNewswire-FirstCall, sales for the 12-week quarter increased 18% to $751 million from $638 million last year. This was driven BOTH by 10% increase in square footage AND 8.3% identical store sales growth year-over-year. These are very nice results!
Checking Morningstar.com, we find sequential revenue growth from $1.3 billion in 1998, $1.5 billion in 1999, $1.8 billion in 2000, $2.3 billion in 2001, $2.7 billion in 2002 and as just reported by the NYTimes, $3.1 billion in 2003.
Earnings/share have grown from $.82 in 1998 to $1.64 in the trailing twelve months. Free cash flow has picked up from $83 million in 2000 to $161 million in the trailing twelve months.
A look at the balance sheet as reported on Morningstar.com shows $131.0 million in cash and $199.8 million in other current assets, compared to $220.7 million in current liabilities and $177.5 million in long-term liabilities.
Checking Yahoo.com for some "key statistics" we find a market cap of $3.87 Billion, trailing p/e a bit rich at 39.49, PEG ratio at 1.82, and price/sales at 1.16. There are 59.90 million shares outstanding and 58.70 million of them that float. As of 10/8/03, there were 4.12 million shares out short representing 7.3 trading days of volume. I suspect some of today's steep climb was a scramble by shorts trying to cover...but that is just a guess on my part. Will need to see if next month's short interest has increased or declined. The October figure was up from 3.56 million shares out short the prior month!
The company DOES pay a small dividend of $.60/share yielding 1.02%. In addition, the stock last split in June, 2001, when it had a 2:1 split.
This is a wonderful company both on earnings and price momentum, in my humble opinion, and on a Peter Lynch basis...I love the stores! However, it is not a bargain, as the p/e is a bit steep even when examined on a PEG basis. However, it may be a great stock to have in your portfolio at some time. Remember, please discuss any of these investment ideas with your investment advisor to see if they think it is a good investment and to make sure it is suitable for you!
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com
Bob