Whole Foods (WFM) stock has grown very steadily in the past few years — about eightfold since the start of 2009 — but the market is now pricing the shares at a pretty fair value, Goldman Sachs analyst Stephen Grambling wrote today in downgrading shares to Neutral from Buy.
“The bottom line is we continue to view WFM as a secular winner, but in our view the market is appropriately recognizing this outlook in the stock,” Grambling wrote. “Therefore, we await pullbacks to once again become more constructive.”
That said, Grambling expects the company to continue to grow profitably, expanding its store base to about 1,000 from 317 and growing margins. Even as he downgraded the stock, Grambling upped his EPS expectations.
“We are raising our FY2012/2013/2014 EPS estimates to $2.37/$2.78/$3.25 from $2.35/$2.74/$3.15 to account for higher comps and corresponding leverage of fixed costs.”
Whole Foods shares fell 3.5% in afternoon trading.
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