Karishma Vanjani

Hormel Foods stock was lower early Wednesday after the seller of Planters snack nuts posted sales that fell just short of expectations and offered an uninspiring outlook for the current fiscal year.

For Hormel's fourth fiscal quarter, which ended in October, adjusted earnings came in at 42 cents a share, in line with expectations. But sales were $3.138 billion, while the consensus estimate among analysts tracked by FactSet was for $3.142 billion.

Markets are forward-looking, and Hormel Foods, which sells prepared foods like pizza toppings and meat, didn't offer much good news with its forecast either.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share are expected to be between $1.58 and $1.72, a range whose midpoint is $1.65, for the fiscal year ending in October 2025. Sales are expected to be between $11.9 billion and $12.2 billion, a range whose midpoint is $12.05 billion. The consensus forecast was for EPS of $1.68 from $12.181 billion in sales.

The stock was down 1.8% to $31.25 in premarket trading.

Write to Karishma Vanjani at karishma.vanjani@dowjones.com.

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December 04, 2024 08:18 ET (13:18 GMT)

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