Latest news with #UnitedNaturalFoods
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
United Natural Foods (UNFI) is Back for an Unusual Options Sequel
While history may not be guaranteed to repeat, those who follow the quantitative methodology may want to keep their eyes on United Natural Foods (UNFI). UNFI stock has been shaking things up on Wall Street, gaining roughly 3% last week and rising over 31% in the trailing month. Despite this tremendous performance, UNFI is only up a little over 3% for the year, raising some questions about sustainability. If unusual options activity is any barometer, United Natural could still have some legs remaining. More News from Barchart Alphabet Posts Lower Free Cash Flow and FCF Margins - Is GOOGL Stock Overvalued? Tech Earnings, Tariff Deadline and Other Key Things to Watch this Week Option Volatility And Earnings Report For July 28 – Aug 1 Markets move fast. Keep up by reading our FREE midday Barchart Brief newsletter for exclusive charts, analysis, and headlines. Heading into the weekend, UNFI stock represented one of the 500 names making up Barchart's Unusual Stock Options Volume screener. Total volume hit 4,687 contracts, representing a 46.79% lift over the trailing one-month average. Interestingly, though, call volume reached only 673 contracts, while put volume jumped to 4,014 contracts, yielding a put/call ratio of 5.96. On the surface, this would seem to imply more traders buying puts than calls, implying a bearish posture. However, unusual options activity is a tricky beast because the contracts can be either accumulative (debit-based) or distributive (credit-based). Options flow, which focuses exclusively on big block transactions likely placed by institutional investors, provides additional clues regarding sentiment. On Friday, net trade sentiment stood at $12,000 above parity, with the bullish positions being bought calls. As for the high volume of puts, most of them expire in January 2027, implying a hedged position. A Bullish Signal Flashes a Second Time for UNFI Stock While I believe that unusual options activity represents an important datapoint — potentially indicating what the smart money may be thinking about — analysts must do a lot of inference. There's no magic behind these numbers. Unless you're interviewing all options traders and they agree to disclose their strategies, you're never really 100% sure what the unusual activity signifies. In other words, unusual options — like so many other screeners and indicators — reveal facts, not necessarily truth. That might sound like a controversial statement but here's what I'm trying to say. Ultimately, as traders, we're seeking asymmetric risk-reward setups. However, we're likely not going to reliably find such favorable asymmetry through facts. For the most part, the common narratives all stem from those facts and now, AI engines are absorbing them and spitting out content at an exponential rate. To have an edge, we need to look at truth. And the only objective truth I see in the past ten weeks is that the market voted to buy UNFI stock six times and voted to sell four times, yet the overall trajectory during this period was negative. For brevity's sake, we can label the sequence as 6-4-D. At first glance, it may seem odd to compress the price action of UNFI stock into a simple binary code. But by doing this, we can analyze the sentiment voting record if you will of United Natural. Going back to January 2019, it's possible to extract UNFI's full demand profile: L10 Category Sample Size Up Probability Baseline Probability Median Return if Up 1-9-D 2 50.00% 58.77% 3.58% 2-8-D 6 66.67% 58.77% 3.61% 3-7-D 16 43.75% 58.77% 1.71% 4-6-D 34 61.76% 58.77% 3.03% 4-6-U 10 70.00% 58.77% 2.99% 5-5-D 37 62.16% 58.77% 5.06% 5-5-U 23 30.43% 58.77% 4.76% 6-4-D 35 71.43% 58.77% 3.42% 6-4-U 25 56.00% 58.77% 4.01% 7-3-D 9 55.56% 58.77% 3.20% 7-3-U 55 67.27% 58.77% 4.63% 8-2-D 3 33.33% 58.77% 0.07% 8-2-U 28 42.86% 58.77% 3.64% 9-1-U 4 75.00% 58.77% 5.02% Effectively, the null hypothesis — that is, a bullish wager on UNFI stock assuming no mispricing — is a next-week upside probability of 58.77%. In any given week, UNFI bulls enjoy a fairly strong upward bias. However, the 6-4-D is our alternative hypothesis, which claims that the odds have now jumped to 71.43%. What's more, the median return assuming the positive pathway is 3.42%. Should the bulls maintain control of the market for the next three weeks, investors may anticipate an additional median performance boost of 2.53%. With UNFI stock closing at $28.21 on Friday, it could theoretically be on course to hit $29.91, possibly up to $30 given the psychological significance. Enticingly, there's precedent here. At the beginning of the month, I noted that UNFI stock had flashed the same 6-4-D sequence (though the anticipated success ratio at the time was slightly lower at 70.59%). Back then, I focused on the 23/25 bull call spread expiring July 18. Look at the chart. Sure, the spread left some cash on the table but come on! The dynamic, the ebb and flow, was called almost perfectly. Going for a Repeat Performance To be perfectly clear, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that the market is guaranteed to give you another swing at the ball. Even assuming that the 71% success rate is totally accurate (which is a difficult claim to make given the market's open system), it still means a chance of failure 29% of the time. With that said, I'm very interested in the 29/30 bull call spread expiring Aug. 15. This transaction involves buying the $29 call and simultaneously selling the $30 call, for a net debit paid of $50 (the most that can be lost in the trade). Should UNFI stock rise through the short strike price at expiration, the maximum reward is also $50, a payout of 100%. While I can't provide any guarantees, I genuinely believe that the 6-4-D sequence is empirically intriguing. Running a one-tailed binomial test reveals a p-value of 0.1832, meaning that there's an 18.32% chance that the forecasted outcome of the 6-4-D could occur by chance rather than by 'intention.' Scientifically, such a high p-value would be considered statistically insignificant. Nevertheless, the entropy of the stock market means that, I as a forecaster, should receive some wiggle room. Besides, you've seen the sequence flash before. If you believe that lightning can strike twice, this is your chance. On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Insider
19-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Jefferies Sticks to Its Hold Rating for United Natural Foods (UNFI)
In a report released today, Christopher Mandeville from Jefferies maintained a Hold rating on United Natural Foods, with a price target of $27.00. The company's shares opened today at $27.64. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. According to TipRanks, Mandeville is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 18.2% and a 73.81% success rate. In addition to Jefferies, United Natural Foods also received a Hold from Guggenheim's John Heinbockel in a report issued yesterday. However, on July 16, CFRA upgraded United Natural Foods (NYSE: UNFI) to a Buy.
Irish Times
16-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Sinn Féin blames ‘human error' for SuperValu gaffe
Sinn Féin has blamed 'human error' for three party TDs incorrectly referring to Irish supermarket chain SuperValu as being part of a US company. During a Dáil debate on supermarket profits last week, the party's finance spokesman Pearse Doherty as well as TD Paul Donnelly named US firm United Natural Foods as the parent of SuperValu. Another TD, Máire Devine, claimed an increase in 'SuperValu's stock by nearly 61 per cent' in an apparent reference to the performance of United Natural Foods shares. While United Natural Foods owns a SuperValu chain in the US, it is not connected to the Irish business. SuperValu in Ireland is owned by Cork-based Musgrave. It is not listed on any stock exchange. [ Who owns SuperValu? Don't ask Sinn Féin Opens in new window ] A Sinn Féin spokesman put the gaffe down to 'human error,' while adding that it should have been caught before the debate took place. It is understood that a Sinn Féin staff member searched for SuperValu in Google Finance and incorrectly took the result tied to United Natural Foods. The mistake threatened to undermine the party's points during the debate around food prices, which have continued to rise even as wider inflation has slowed. Consumer prices rose 1.8 per cent in June, according to Central Statistics Office data, down from 2.2 per cent in April and less than half the 4.1 per cent increase in January 2024. Still food prices are up sharply. [ Grocery prices now climbing by more than 5% new figures show Opens in new window ] The price of groceries in supermarkets rose 5.3 per cent in the 12 weeks to the end of June, according to Kantar Worldpanel. Over the course of a year, price inflation of 5 per cent will add close to €400 to a typical household's grocery spend. In a sign that shoppers are becoming more price conscious, the Kantar data showed that spending on promotional offers rose 17.6 per cent. SuperValu has a 20.3 per cent share of the Irish supermarket sector, trailing Dunnes Stores and Tesco.
Globe and Mail
15-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
United Natural Foods to Host Business Update Call on July 16, 2025
United Natural Foods, Inc. (NYSE: UNFI) will host a call with the investment community at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday July 16, 2025 to provide an update on the previously disclosed cyber incident and the Company's outlook for fiscal 2025. To access the conference call, please dial (800) 715-9871 (U.S. toll-free) and reference conference ID number 5462932. An audio webcast of the conference call, and materials that will be referenced during the call, will be available via the Investors section of the Company's website An online archive of the webcast will be available for 120 days. About United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI is North America's premier grocery wholesaler delivering the widest variety of fresh, branded, and owned brand products to more than 30,000 locations throughout North America, including natural product superstores, independent retailers, conventional supermarket chains, ecommerce providers, and food service customers. UNFI also provides a broad range of value-added services and segmented marketing expertise, including proprietary technology, data, market insights, and shelf management to help customers and suppliers build their businesses and brands. As the largest full-service grocery partner in North America, UNFI is committed to building a food system that is better for all and is uniquely positioned to deliver great food, more choices, and fresh thinking to customers. To learn more about how UNFI is delivering value for its stakeholders, visit
Business Wire
15-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
United Natural Foods to Host Business Update Call on July 16, 2025
PROVIDENCE, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--United Natural Foods, Inc. (NYSE: UNFI) will host a call with the investment community at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday July 16, 2025 to provide an update on the previously disclosed cyber incident and the Company's outlook for fiscal 2025. To access the conference call, please dial (800) 715-9871 (U.S. toll-free) and reference conference ID number 5462932. An audio webcast of the conference call, and materials that will be referenced during the call, will be available via the Investors section of the Company's website An online archive of the webcast will be available for 120 days. About United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI is North America's premier grocery wholesaler delivering the widest variety of fresh, branded, and owned brand products to more than 30,000 locations throughout North America, including natural product superstores, independent retailers, conventional supermarket chains, ecommerce providers, and food service customers. UNFI also provides a broad range of value-added services and segmented marketing expertise, including proprietary technology, data, market insights, and shelf management to help customers and suppliers build their businesses and brands. As the largest full-service grocery partner in North America, UNFI is committed to building a food system that is better for all and is uniquely positioned to deliver great food, more choices, and fresh thinking to customers. To learn more about how UNFI is delivering value for its stakeholders, visit
