What happened Shares of natural-foods grocery store Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ: SFM) stock popped 13% in early trading Thursday after the company reported sales and earnings that broadly outperformed Wall Street's expectations. Expected to earn $0.40 per share on $1.4 billion in sales, Sprouts nailed the sales target -- but earned $0.46 per share. Sprouts stock remains up 6.1% as of 2:20 p.m. EDT. Image source: Getty Images. So what This was a relief -- but perhaps still not great news, which would explain why Sprouts shares are giving up some of their gains as the day wears on. Q1 2019 sales grew 10% year over year, with same-store sales climbing 1.4%. Profits, however, although they beat expectations, slid 8% from the $0.50 per share Sprouts had earned in last year's Q1. Now what Regardless, Sprouts interim co-CEO Brad Lukow said that based on what he's seeing in terms of "strong new store productivity...and planned continued expansion," he's "raising the bottom-end of our EPS guidance." By year-end, Sprouts still expects to grow sales 9% to 10.5%, in line with Q1 sales growth. Earnings per share, however, are now expected to come in between $1.18 and $1.24 per share, or $0.02 better than previously expected. Taken at the midpoint, this implies $1.21 per share for the full year, or a penny better than Wall Street has been forecasting -- and suggests Sprouts will continue to beat earnings as the year moves along. 10 stocks we like better than Sprouts Farmers MarketsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has quadrupled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Sprouts Farmers Markets wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of March 1, 2019Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source