Whole Foods Markets (WFM)

[Chelski]

Buyout rumors continue.Maybe something to it .

Rumors have swirled in recent days that Whole Foods (WFM) could be the target of a leveraged buyout, which boosted its stock on Friday. But some analysts aren't persuaded a buyout is a good bet. Wolfe Research's Scott Mushkin, running numbers, calculates that increasing natural-foods competition and the need for WFM to lower prices yields a post-takeover internal rate of return of only 4%. Deutsche Bank is more optimistic. Says some aggressive assumptions on lower prices, cost savings and store and sales growth result in IRR of 15% or greater. WFM stock recently off 0.5% at $33.76. ([e-mail]; @ilanbrat) (END) Dow Jones Newswires October 05, 2015 14:49 ET (18:49 GMT) Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.