Whole Foods shares up after profit tops Street

By Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Whole Foods Market Inc (WFMI.O) said cost controls helped it post a quarterly profit that blew past analysts' estimates on Wednesday and its shares rose 4.9 percent.

The company, which specializes in organic, natural and gourmet products, has cut jobs, reduced store opening plans, pared capital spending and suspended its cash dividend.

Whole Foods, which is known for being more expensive than supermarkets run by major operators like Kroger Co (KR.N), Supervalu Inc (SVU.N) or Safeway Inc (SWY.N), for about a year has been pushing its lower-priced fare as the worst recession in decades intensifies competition among supermarket chains.

Executives said they were able to pass lower produce prices on to consumers during the latest quarter, which helped the upscale grocer promote lower prices while protecting profit margins.

Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods said net income fell to $35.3 million, or 19 cents per diluted share, for the fiscal second-quarter ended April 12 from $40.0 million, or 29 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding 5 cents in impairment charges, the company earned 24 cents per share. Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 18 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Sales slipped to $1.86 billion from $1.87 billion.

Same-store sales, a gauge of financial performance that measures sales at stores open at least one year, fell 4.8 percent from a year earlier.