Whole Foods: 'Food for Thought' or Wholly Expensive?

Warren Buffett once said "Price is what you pay, value is what you get." While I understand "the Oracle" was referring to individual stocks, I've recently realized that this maxim is especially true while shopping at stores such as Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFM), a company that has been given the nickname "Whole Paycheck" due largely to its premium prices.

Nonetheless, amid a sluggish economy that has hurt food stocks such as Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG), Whole Foods continues to enjoy a stock valuation that presumes growth will continue for the next 10 years. Is it still a good bet?

A Good End to a Great Year, but...

For the period ending in September, Whole Foods saw its net income increase to $112.7 million, or $0.60 per share -- representing a year-over-year increase of 42% from the $75.5 million earned in fourth-quarter of 2011. Likewise, revenue for the quarter were solid -- increasing 24% to $2.91 billion. The company beat on both its top and bottom lines as analysts were expecting profits of $0.59 per share on revenue of $2.90 billion.

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Impressively, despite what has been a difficult economic climate, the company continues to demonstrate solid growth as comps increased 8.5% while identical store sales were up 8.3%. Profitability also continues to impress. In terms of gross margins, Whole Foods logged a year-over-year improvement of 80 basis points. While a slight drop in gross margins from the third quarter might raise a few eyebrows, it was not unexpected.

The company has been working hard trying to figure out ways to increase its foot traffic. One of the ways was to execute the Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT)� strategy and utilize its own margin leverage to offer lower prices. Given that the company's operating income grew by almost 50% year over year, I would say that this approach worked pretty well.

Overall it was a solid performance. Unlike many of its peers, the company made a strong showing, completing its fiscal year earning $465.6 million, or $2.52 per share -- a 30% improvement from fiscal year 2011. Still, this was not enough to keep investors from selling off the stock, which followed after management's Q1 guidance.

Sandy Brings Caution

The company said revenue for the first five weeks of the current quarter has been adversely impacted by Hurricane Sandy. As a result, investors should expect a one-time charge in Q1. But the company stopped short of revealing to what extent -- only to say that it is working with its insurance company to assess damages, results of which might not be reveled for several months.

As a consequence, the company is seeing current comps in the areas of 7% -- much lower than the 8% to 9% investors had become accustomed to. With that in mind, the company is forecasting fiscal 2013 earnings of $2.88 to $2.87 per share -- falling short of analysts' estimates of $2.91. On the news, the stock fell almost 5%, which has cause me to wonder if the stock is now "food for thought" or still expensive particularly due to its P/E of 36.