Campbell Soup Beats Profit Expectations, Matches On Sales

Campbell Soup Co. reported on Thursday a fiscal fourth-quarter profit that declined to $128 million, or 22 cents a share, from $234 million, or 43 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, such as charges related to cost-cutting initiatives, adjusted earnings per share rose to 43 cents from 41 cents, beating the FactSet consensus of 42 cents. Sales fell 9% to $1.69 billion, matching the FactSet consensus, as declines in the packaged food company's baking and snacking, international simple meals and U.S. beverages businesses offset increases in its U.S. simple meals and its Bolthouse and food services businesses. Excluding the impact of currency movements and the fact that there was one less week in the quarter compared with the year before, sales would have increased 1%. For fiscal 2016, the company expects sales to be flat to up 1% from $8.08 billion in 2015, while the FactSet consensus of $8.19 billion implies 1.4% growth. Adjusted EPS is expected to be $2.53 to $2.58, surrounding the FactSet consensus of $2.55. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has gained 0.8% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has lost 7.8%.