Winners & Losers

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Tuesday's Late Winners & Losers

Sarina Penn

Whole Foods Market (WFMI Quote) was one of the tastiest names among a number of solid after-hours performers in the restaurant space Tuesday, as heavy trading boosted shares by 9.1%.

The natural-foods grocery-store chain posted essentially flat non-GAAP earnings of 35 cents a share for the second quarter, but that comes in 2 cents ahead of Thomson Financial's estimates. Shares of the Austin, Texas, company gained $3.36 to $40.40.

Wild Oats (OATS Quote), which agreed to be bought by Whole Foods earlier this year, added 49 cents to $16.59 even though the Federal Trade Commission is challenging the proposed merger. Tuesday was the first day of a two-day hearing to evaluate the government's challenge to the buyout.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG Quote) shares also fired up, after the Denver-based restaurant chain reported second-quarter income that catapulted to $20 million, or 60 cents a share, from 33 cents a share last year. Denny's (DENN Quote), another restaurant chain, crushed Wall Street profit targets by 11 cents a share, reporting second-quarter earnings of 12 cents a share.

Chipotle was up $4.16, or 4.7%, to $92.50. South Carolina-based Denny's gained 20 cents, or 5%, to $4.20.

Elsewhere in the green, business software firm Navteq (NVT Quote) posted a soaring second-quarter profit of 41 cents a share that far exceeded expectations. Shares of the Chicago-based company jumped 7.3% to $58.08.

Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD Quote), meanwhile, bucked the positive trend for food-related stocks after the Minneapolis restaurant operator posted $76 million revenue for the second quarter -- just shy of the average estimate. Same-store sales were up 8.1% at company-owned locations and earnings were in line at 22 cents a share. Still, shares lost 9.8% to $39, completely erasing all of today's big regular-session run-up gains.

SiRF Technology (SIRF Quote) likewise slid 10.9% to $20.88, even though the California-based maker of semiconductor and software products met second-quarter Street projections. Fellow tech name First Solar (FSLR Quote) was also off sharply, despite swinging to a profit in that quarter. The Phoenix-based company shed 7.8% to $103.94.