US Foods Holding Corp. (US Foods (USFD)) had a rough start to 2026. The foodservice distributor reported first-quarter earnings on Thursday that missed Wall Street's targets, and investors responded by sending shares down more than 5%.

The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $0.78, three cents shy of the $0.81 analysts were looking for. Revenue came in at $9.610 billion, up 2.8% from a year ago but still below the $9.647 billion consensus. Not a disaster, but not the kind of quarter that gets anyone excited.

CEO Dave Flitman blamed a triple threat: severe weather, rising fuel costs, and a deteriorating macro environment. “We accelerated independent restaurant case growth and gained market share despite a deteriorating macro environment and weather-related disruptions,” Flitman said in the earnings release. He noted that momentum improved as weather conditions normalized later in the quarter.

Total case volume grew 1.4% in the quarter, with independent restaurant case volume up a solid 4.6%. Healthcare volume rose 3.7% and hospitality volume increased 5%, but chain volume slipped 2.3%, partially offsetting those gains.

Gross profit increased 2.4% to $1.7 billion, though growth was tempered by a $33 million unfavorable LIFO inventory adjustment. On an adjusted basis, gross profit rose 4.4% to $1.7 billion, representing 17.6% of net sales. Adjusted EBITDA climbed 6.2% to $413 million, with margin expanding 14 basis points to 4.3%.

But here's where the weather really bit: management said weather-related disruptions and elevated fuel costs reduced adjusted EBITDA growth by about four percentage points. During the earnings call, executives also pointed to increased operating expenses per case as a pressure point, though they noted things normalized later in the quarter.

CFO Dirk Locascio highlighted that the company's self-help initiatives continued to support margin expansion, allowing adjusted earnings to grow faster than EBITDA. Still, the broader industry headwinds were hard to ignore: severe weather, the conflict in the Middle East, rising fuel costs, and consumer sentiment that hit a record low in March all weighed on results.

Cash flow from operations for the first three months was $294 million, down $97 million from a year ago. The company ended the quarter with just $49 million in cash and equivalents.

Despite the shaky start, US Foods isn't backing down from its full-year targets. The company reaffirmed its fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS guidance range of $4.70 to $4.93, which brackets the analyst estimate of $4.78. It also stuck with its sales outlook of $41.001 billion to $41.789 billion, versus the Street's $41.605 billion.

Investors weren't entirely convinced. US Foods shares were down 5.28% at $87.19 at the time of publication Thursday. But with guidance intact and weather-related disruptions fading, the company is betting the rest of the year will look a lot brighter.