Surprisingly, Whole Foods surges after earnings

Assuming everything remains static, the company now sees just under $8.0 billion in Fiscal September-2010, yet Thomson Reuters has estimates at $8.04 billion. That seems a tad light on the surface. That is actually under an $8.3 billion it first projected in February.

Shares closed down 9% at $20.00 during the normal trading day, yet shares are actually up close to $22.00 in the after-hours session. The 52-week trading range is $7.04 to $34.08, and this was a $50 stock just about 20 months ago. What is almost very surprising here is that there is not additional profit taking even after the sell-off of 9% to $20.00 today. This has risen 200% from the lows and is up more than 100% from when I previously noted it with 5 retail stocks which could double by the end of the recession.

Shares are up at $21.51 after the close (as of 4:57 PM EST), yet had traded up almost at $22.00. If there was ever a chance to see some profit taking, this might have seemed like one of those occasions. It seems that is what can happen when you have over 7 days of average trading volume listed in the short interest.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall Street and he does not own stock in the companies he writes about.