Why The Fresh Market, Inc. Stock Spoiled Today

What:Shares of The Fresh Market were down 16.6% as of 10:30 a.m. Friday after the organic grocer posted weaker-than-expected second-quarter results.

So what: Quarterly revenue rose 4.7% year over year to $442.1 million, including a 1% decline in comparable store sales to $392.7 million. The latter figure resulted from a 0.7% decline in the number of transactions, and a 0.3% drop in average transaction size. The Fresh Market has also opened 8 new leased store locations so far in 2015.

Meanwhile, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose slightly year over year to $46.4 million, andGAAP net income climbed to $17.5 million, up from $11.4 million in the same year-ago period. But adjusted earnings per diluted share remained flat over the same period at $0.36.

Analysts, on average, were anticipating adjusted net income of $0.40 per share on higher revenue of $458.6 million.

Now what: "Our second quarter results reflect changes in our pricing and promotional investments," explained The Fresh Market CEO Sean Crane, "which were less effective than anticipated in a more challenging macro environment." At the same time, Crane reminded investors "the financial health of the business remains sound," and promised the company is "committed to increasing our profitability as we work to stabilize and improve our future comparable store sales."

In the meantime, however, The Fresh Market reduced its fiscal 2015 outlook. Total net sales growth for the year is now expected to be 5% to 7%, including a decline in comparable store sales of to 2.5% to 1%. Previously, The Fresh Market told investors to anticipate net sales growth of 9% to 11%, helped by comparable store sales growth of 1% to 3%. Next's full-year adjusted earnings per diluted share are now expected to be $1.55 to $1.65, down from The Fresh Market's previous range of $1.85 to $1.93.

In comparison, analysts' consensus estimates called for revenue to increase 10.9% year over year, and translate to adjusted earnings of $1.85 per share.

That's not to say The Fresh Market stocklooksexpensive right now; shares currently trade for around 17 times trailing 12-month earnings, and 10.8 times next year's estimates. But keeping in mind those estimates will almost certainly come down as Wall Street has time to fully digest today's report, it's hard to blame the market for so aggressively bidding The Fresh Market stock down today.

The article Why The Fresh Market, Inc. Stock Spoiled Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

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