<p>Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFM) recently released an earnings report that caused a nearly 10% drop in its stock price this morning, despite reporting strong sales numbers. The report failed to meet Wall Street's expectations on same store sales, which were 5.4% instead of the expected 5.5%. Also, sales growth year over year only grew 9.96% instead of the expected 11% growth. A reduced estimate of future earnings was also included in the report, with revised numbers for 2014 and 2015.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Will Whole Foods' stock price bounce back? The stock has already recovered somewhat since the announcement this morning and the company still plans to open 33-38 stores in 2014, which will bring the total number of stores to around 400, including seven former Dominick's stores in Chicago. Though analysts were disappointed, the company reported strong growth and has been on a path of expansion.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">“With unparalleled quality standards, we are the leading retailer of fresh, healthy, natural and organic foods. We are very confident in our future growth potential and are moving aggressively to take advantage of that opportunity,” Walter Robb, co-chief executive officer of Whole Foods Market said in the report. “With a base of 373 stores today and a record 107 stores in our development pipeline, we expect to cross the 500-store mark in 2017. Over the longer term, we see demand for 1,200 Whole Foods Market stores in the U.S. alone.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow as we continue to follow this developing story.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/sites/default/files/media/Global/Company%20Info/PDFs/WFM-2014-Q1-financial.pdf" target="_new"> Whole Foods 1st Quarter Earnings Report </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
