Kraft Heinz Rallies As First-quarter Earnings Beat Expectations

Kraft Heinz Co. shares rose in Wednesday's extended session after the packaged-foods giant posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings. Kraft Heinz reported its first-quarter earnings rose to $896 million, or 73 cents a share, from $276 million, or 24 cents a share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, it also earned 73 cents a share. Revenue grew to $6.57 billion versus $2.48 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of 63 cents a share and revenue of $6.5 billion. Kraft Heinz was formed via a merger of H.J. Heinz Co. and Kraft Foods Group Inc. in July and is in the process of reducing its annual spending by $1.5 billion by the end of 2017. Shares rallied 5% in after-hours trading.