Packaged foods company Hormel (NYSE:HRL) will be reporting earnings tomorrow before the bell. Here’s what to look for.
Hormel Foods met analysts’ revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $3.14 billion, down 1.9% year on year. It was a slower quarter for the company, with full-year revenue and EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations.
Is Hormel Foods a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.
This quarter, analysts are expecting Hormel Foods’s revenue to decline 1.5% year on year to $2.95 billion, a deceleration from its flat revenue in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.38 per share.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Hormel Foods has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates six times over the last two years.
Looking at Hormel Foods’s peers in the shelf-stable food segment, some have already reported their Q4 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Hershey delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 8.7%, beating analysts’ expectations by 1.6%, and Lancaster Colony reported revenues up 4.8%, topping estimates by 2.8%. Hershey traded up 6.2% following the results while Lancaster Colony was also up 11.9%.
Read our full analysis of Hershey’s results here and Lancaster Colony’s results here.
Investors in the shelf-stable food segment have had steady hands going into earnings, with share prices flat over the last month. Hormel Foods is down 3.4% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $31.73 (compared to the current share price of $29.40).
When a company has more cash than it knows what to do with, buying back its own shares can make a lot of sense–as long as the price is right. Luckily, we’ve found one, a low-priced stock that is gushing free cash flow AND buying back shares. Click here to claim your Special Free Report on a fallen angel growth story that is already recovering from a setback.
