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Whole Foods (WFM) Will No Longer be Part of Nasdaq-100

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As a result of the annual re-ranking of the NASDAQ-100 index, Whole Foods Market, Inc. will cease to be part of the same. The change will be effective from Dec 19, 2016. The rebalancing is carried out every year in December. During the course, NASDAQ evaluates its components, compares them with those not included in the index, re-ranks all companies deemed fit and makes necessary adjustments.

Other companies that are slated to exit the index as a part of this year’s re-balancing are NetApp, Inc. (NTAP - Free Report) , Stericycle, Inc. (SRCL - Free Report) and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. . In place of these exiting stocks Cintas Corporation (CTAS - Free Report) , Hasbro, Inc. (HAS - Free Report) , Hologic, Inc. (HOLX - Free Report) , and KLA-Tencor Corporation (KLAC - Free Report) will be added to the pool.

Coming back to Whole Foods, the stock has been under pressure due to stiff competition, food price deflation, an aggressive promotional environment and waning store traffic. We noticed that the shares have declined 4.3% year to date, when the Zacks categorized Retail-Supermarkets industry has increased 9%. Further, the stock has also underperformed the NASDAQ-100 index that recorded a growth of 6.6% over the same period.

The company has been grappling with waning comparable-store sales (comps) performance since the past five quarters. Comps declined 2.6% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016. Comps had fallen 2.6%, 3% and 1.8% in the third, second and first quarters of fiscal 2016, respectively, and 0.2% in the final quarter of fiscal 2015. During the first five weeks of the first quarter of fiscal 2017, comps dropped 1.6%.

Nevertheless, Whole Foods has been revamping its pricing strategy and concentrating on value offerings. It has launched a new store concept, "365 by Whole Foods Market" to target millennials and stave off competition that has been hurting its performance.

We note the company is leaving no stone unturned to reach its target customers, whether through national marketing and branding campaigns, home delivery services, store expansion or the adoption of a digital route.

Whole Foods currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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