Tyson Shares Rally as 3Q Profit Soars

Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) said Monday its third-quarter earnings more than tripled amid stronger demand and higher prices for its products, handily beating Wall Street estimates.

The meat processor also reaffirmed its sales outlook for the full year.

“As expected, we are delivering robust results in the second half of our fiscal year,” President and Chief Executive Donnie Smith said in a statement.

Shares were trading 4.1% higher at $29.69 in pre-market trading. As of Friday’s close, the stock was up 85% over the last year.

Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest chicken producers, reported a profit of $249 million, or 69 cents a share, well up from the year-ago period’s $76 million, or 22 cents a share. Last year, adjusted per-share earnings, which exclude one-time items, were 50 cents.

Revenue grew 5.7% to $8.73 billion.

Analysts were looking for per-share earnings of 60 cents on revenue of $8.65 billion.

Gross margin widened to 7.8% from 6.9%. Operating margin was up to 4.8% from 4.1%.

The company said its sales growth for the latest period was largely due to the performance of its chicken segment, which saw an 11% increase in sales as prices rose 6%.

Revenue from beef sales increased 6.8%. Pork revenue declined 0.9% on a 4.7% drop in volume that offset higher prices.