United Natural Foods Inc key statistics and ratios
In fiscal 2026, United Natural Foods Inc had return on equity of 5.3%, an operating margin of 0.7%, debt equal to 97.7% of equity and a current ratio of 1.29. Each ratio below is calculated from the figures on its income statement, balance sheet and cash flow pages.
Financial ratios
| Fiscal year | 2010Jul 2010 | 2011Jul 2011 | 2012Jul 2012 | 2013Aug 2013 | 2014Aug 2014 | 2015Aug 2015 | 2016Jul 2016 | 2017Jul 2017 | 2018Jul 2018 | 2019Aug 2019 | 2020Aug 2020 | 2021Jul 2021 | 2022Jul 2022 | 2023Jul 2023 | 2024Aug 2024 | 2025Aug 2025 | 2026Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 18.5% | 18.2% | 17.5% | 16.9% | 16.6% | 15.4% | 15.1% | 15.4% | 14.9% | 14.4% | 14.6% | 14.6% | 14.5% | 13.6% | 13.6% | 13.3% | 13.5% |
| Operating margin | 3.1% | 2.9% | 3.0% | 3.1% | 3.1% | 3.0% | 2.6% | 2.4% | 2.2% | −0.9% | −0.7% | 1.1% | 1.5% | 0.4% | 0.0% | −0.1% | 0.7% |
| Net margin | 1.8% | 1.7% | 1.7% | 1.8% | 1.8% | 1.7% | 1.5% | 1.4% | 1.6% | −1.3% | −1.0% | 0.6% | 0.9% | 0.1% | −0.4% | −0.4% | 0.3% |
| Free-cash-flow margin | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.7% | −0.4% | −1.2% | −1.0% | 3.0% | 2.3% | 0.6% | 0.3% | 1.1% | 1.1% | 0.3% | 1.0% | −0.3% | 0.8% | 1.0% |
| Return on equity | 10.8% | 10.2% | 9.9% | 10.4% | 10.8% | 10.6% | 8.7% | 8.1% | 9.2% | −17.0% | −20.7% | 11.2% | 15.0% | 1.4% | −6.6% | −7.4% | 5.3% |
| Return on assets | 5.5% | 5.8% | 6.3% | 6.7% | 6.2% | 5.7% | 4.7% | 4.5% | 5.6% | −5.6% | −3.7% | 2.0% | 3.3% | 0.3% | −1.5% | −1.6% | 1.1% |
| Asset turnover | 3.00 | 3.42 | 3.62 | 3.76 | 3.38 | 3.39 | 3.14 | 3.23 | 3.50 | 4.41 | 3.60 | 3.57 | 3.82 | 4.03 | 4.15 | 4.20 | 4.24 |
| Current ratio | 1.37 | 1.82 | 2.83 | 2.80 | 2.66 | 2.93 | 2.60 | 2.36 | 2.56 | 1.69 | 1.56 | 1.43 | 1.57 | 1.44 | 1.44 | 1.32 | 1.29 |
| Debt to equity | 47.0% | 18.8% | 23.5% | 24.0% | 67.2% | 53.4% | 28.8% | 14.0% | 17.4% | 206.7% | 232.5% | 151.5% | 120.8% | 114.2% | 128.8% | 121.3% | 97.7% |
| Interest cover (operating income ÷ interest) | 19.7x | 25.9x | 32.8x | 31.5x | 27.2x | 16.7x | 13.8x | 13.5x | 14.0x | n/m | n/m | 1.4x | 2.7x | 0.8x | 0.0x | n/m | 1.7x |
| Effective tax rate | 39.0% | 39.4% | 39.4% | 38.1% | 39.5% | 39.6% | 39.6% | 39.3% | 22.5% | — | — | 18.6% | 18.1% | — | — | — | 17.6% |
| Capital spending as % of revenue | 1.5% | 0.9% | 0.6% | 1.1% | 2.2% | 1.6% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.4% | 1.0% | 0.7% | 1.2% | 0.9% | 1.1% | 1.1% | 0.7% | 0.7% |
| Free cash flow ÷ net income | 16.1% | 11.8% | 38.0% | −20.6% | −67.6% | −57.9% | 202.9% | 166.9% | 39.6% | — | — | 204.0% | 32.3% | >999% | — | — | 384.5% |
| Dividends and buybacks ÷ free cash flow | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0.0% | 0.0% | 37.6% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 20.6% | — | 0.0% | 15.5% |
| Quarter | 2025 Q1Nov 2024 | 2025 Q2Feb 2025 | 2025 Q3May 2025 | 2025 Q4Aug 2025 | 2026 Q1Nov 2025 | 2026 Q2Jan 2026 | 2026 Q3May 2026 | 2026 Q4Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 13.2% | 13.1% | 13.4% | 13.4% | 13.4% | 13.2% | 13.6% | 13.7% |
| Operating margin | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.2% | −1.0% | 0.2% | 0.7% | 0.9% | 0.9% |
| Net margin | −0.3% | −0.0% | −0.1% | −1.1% | −0.1% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.5% |
| Free-cash-flow margin | −2.0% | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1.1% | −0.7% | 3.1% | 0.7% | 1.0% |
| Current ratio | 1.48 | 1.45 | 1.41 | 1.32 | 1.38 | 1.33 | 1.33 | 1.29 |
| Debt to equity | 138.3% | 127.4% | 120.7% | 120.1% | 124.1% | 110.6% | 104.1% | 96.4% |
Financial health
- Short-term assets cover short-term liabilities $3.1bn of assets due within a year against $2.4bn of liabilities due within a year.
- Short-term assets cover long-term liabilities $3.1bn short-term assets against $3.0bn of longer-dated liabilities.
- More cash than debt $37m of cash against $1.6bn of debt.
- Debt below 40% of shareholders' equity Debt is 96% of equity.
- Debt burden no higher than five years ago Debt to equity moved from 137% to 96% over five years.
- A year's operating cash flow covers at least 20% of debt $540m of operating cash flow against $1.6bn of debt.
- Operating profit covers interest at least five times over Operating income of $211m against $126m of interest.
Moat
Weak moat
How hard United Natural Foods's competitive advantage looks for rivals to wear away, judged from 10 years of its own filings: returns on capital, pricing power, profit durability, cash conversion and discipline.
- Returns on capital 0 / 20
Net income has been a median 0.8% of total assets over 10 years.
- Pricing power 8 / 20
Gross margin has been a median 14.5%, moving by 0.7 percentage points (standard deviation) across 10 years.
- Durability 0 / 20
Operating margin has been a median 0.5%; its worst year was -0.9%.
- Cash conversion 9 / 20
Free cash flow was positive in 9 of 10 years, at a median 0.9% of revenue.
- Discipline 15 / 20
The diluted share count rose 4.7% over five years; stock-based pay has been a median 0.1% of revenue.
AI disruption exposure: Low. In this industry, the business rests on physical assets, regulated networks or products AI itself depends on.
Compare with peers
- US Foods Holding Corp. statistics
- Performance Food Group Co statistics
- Sysco statistics
- Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. statistics
- Amcon Distributing Co statistics
Head to head: UNFI vs USFDPFGC vs UNFISYY vs UNFICHEF vs UNFI
More: Food Distributors stocks compared, Consumer Staples sector, rankings of US companies