Tyson Foods
beat quarterly earnings estimates but the stock was falling after the meat company issued weak guidance.
Tyson (ticker: TSN) posted fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 37 cents a share, higher than Wall Street’s call for 29 cents, but tumbling from the $1.63 a share recorded in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue of $13.3 billion fell short of expectations of $13.7 billion. Overall, fourth-quarter volume slid 0.6% from a year earlier, and average price fell 1.4%.
Within its beef segment, volume dropped 6.7%, while average price rose 10.2%; within the chicken segment, volume jumped 1.7% while prices dropped 9.2%.
The meat company said that for fiscal 2024 the United States Department of Agriculture indicated that domestic protein production—which includes beef, pork, chicken, and turkey—should decrease slightly from fiscal 2023 levels, prompting Tyson to update the outlook for its segments.
It expects sales to be relatively flat in fiscal 2024 compared with sales of $52.88 billion in 2023, while analysts have penciled in a jump to $54.37 billion.
Chief Executive Officer Donnie King said the company was focusing on what it can control.
“Over this past year, we’ve taken bold action to improve performance. We’re managing the business for cash. We also have pulled out our capital spend,” King said on an earnings call with analysts. “And if you go back to ’22, we spent $2.6 billion in ’23. We pulled that down to $1.9 billion, and we’re projecting between $1 billion and $1.5 billion in ’24.”
The company also raised dividends for the 12th consecutive year on its Class A and Class B shares.
Tyson stock was down 1.4% to $46.28. It had risen soon after the stock market opened but has since fallen back.
Write to Emily Dattilo at [email protected]
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