Shares of Conagra Brands Inc. fell toward a more than three-year low Thursday, after the food brands company reported a fiscal first-quarter profit that rose above expectations, while sales fell a bit short amid weakness in its refrigerated and frozen foods business. The company
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with brands including Duncan Hines, Birds Eye, Slim Jim and Hunt’s, swung to net income for the quarter to Aug. 27 of $319.7 million, or 67 cents a share, from a loss of $77.5 million, or 16 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share rose 15% to 66 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 60 cents. Sales inched less than 0.1% lower to $2.904 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $2.951 billion. Price and mix increased 6.3%, but volume dropped 6.6%, “largely due to industry-wide slowdown in consumption and recent consumer behavior shifts,” the company said. The stock initially jumped as much as 2.3% after the results were released, before reversing course to be down 1.1% in premarket trading. That put the stock to open around the lowest closing price seen since March 2020. Within Conagra’s business segments, grocery and snacks sales increased 1.2% to $1.2 billion, as price/mix rose 5.6% while volume fell 4.4%. Refrige …
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