Hormel Foods Corp.'s stock $(HRL)$ fell 3.6% early Wednesday, after the parent of brands including Jennie-O and Spam posted weaker-than-expected sales for its fiscal fourth quarter. Austin, Minn.-based Hormel had net income of $220.2 million, or 40 cents a share, for the quarter to Oct. 27, up from $195.9 million, or 36 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted for one-time items, the company had EPS of 42 cents, matching the FactSet consensus. Sales fell to $3.138 billion from $3.198 billion, just below the $3.142 billion FactSet consensus. "The combination of underlying business strength and the capture of $75 million in operating income benefit from our Transform and Modernize (T&M) initiative helped to offset a dynamic consumer environment, the steep decline in whole bird turkey commodity markets, and the production disruption at our Suffolk, Virginia, facility," CEO Jim Snee said in prepared remarks. The company is now expecting sales of $11.9 billion to $12.2 billion for fiscal 2025 and for adjusted EPS to range from $1.58 to $1.72. The FactSet consensus is for 2025 EPS of $1.68 and sales of $12.2 billion. The stock is down 0.9% in the year through Tuesday's close, while the S&P 500 has gained 27%.

-Ciara Linnane

For more from MarketWatch: http://www.marketwatch.com/newsviewer

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 04, 2024 06:33 ET (11:33 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.