Shares of organic and natural foods distributor and supermarket operator United Natural Foods (NYSE: UNFI) tumbled 27.5% through 11:15 a.m. ET Wednesday morning after the company announced a big earnings miss.

Despite edging out analyst predictions for $7.8 billion in sales for its fiscal second quarter of 2023, United Natural Foods whiffed badly on earnings, reporting a non-GAAP (adjusted) profit of only $0.78 per share where Wall Street had expected $1.46. (And as you'll see below, the generally accepted accounting principles number was even worse.)

The news wasn't all bad, but it was still bad enough. Sales grew slightly faster than expected in fiscal Q2, up 5.4% year over year. But "profits were challenged," CEO Sandy Douglas said, pointing to "accelerating inflation" and "supply chain volatility" as two of the culprits for United Natural Foods missing analysts' earnings target.  

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Source Fool.com