Kellogg Shares Rise On Earnings Beat

Kellogg Co. shares are up 0.8% in Tuesday premarket trading after the food company reported third-quarter earnings that beat expectations. Net income totaled $292 million, or 82 cents per share, up from $205 million, or 58 cents per share, for the same period last year. Adjusted earnings per share were 96 cents, beating the 87 cents FactSet consensus. Revenue totaled $3.25 billion, down from $3.33 billion last year, and missing the $3.26 billion FactSet consensus. "Our sales were affected by trade-inventory reductions in U.S. cereal, a challenging U.K. market and portfolio transformations that have taken longer than anticipated to execute," said John Bryant, Kellogg's chief executive, in a statement. Kellogg increased its full-year currency-neutral EPS guidance by about 5 cents to $4.16 to $4.23. It cut its sales outlook 1% excluding Venezuela from the previous flat guidance. Kellogg shares are up 4% for the year so far while the S&P 500 Index are up 4% for the same period.