What happened Shares of Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ: SFM) were moving higher today after the natural-foods grocer posted a better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings report. As a result, the stock was up 16.4% as of 11:03 a.m. EST. So what Comparable sales at Sprouts rose 1.5% in the quarter, and overall revenue increased 8% to $1.36 billion, which matched analyst estimates. Gross margin in the quarter improved from 33.2% to 34.4%, showing the company successfully managed pricing and inventory as it lapped deep promotions in the fourth quarter of 2018. That result led to strong growth on the bottom line as earnings per share jumped from an adjusted $0.19 a year ago to $0.27, blowing past expectations of $0.13. Image source: Sprouts Farmers Market. "During the fourth quarter, I was encouraged by the Sprouts team's dedication to driving same store sales growth, while we simultaneously delivered positive margins," CEO Jack Sinclair said. Now what Looking ahead to 2020, management expects comparable sales growth of flat to 1% and overall revenue growth of 5.5% to 6.5% for both the first quarter and the full year, which is actually below analyst estimates of between 7% and 8%. On the bottom line, it sees earnings per share of $0.45 to $0.47 for the first quarter in line with estimates of $0.46, and EPS of $1.17 to $1.23, which compares to the consensus of $1.12. Though Sprouts continues to face tough competition from pushes in online grocery from Amazon.com's Whole Foods as well as Walmart and Kroger, investors seem pleased with the profit expansion both in the fourth quarter and heading into 2020. 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 tripled 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 December 1, 2019 John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jeremy Bowman owns shares of Amazon. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source