Plant-based food and beverage company SunOpta (NASDAQ:STKL) will be reporting results tomorrow after market close. Here’s what to look for.

SunOpta beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 0.8% last quarter, reporting revenues of $176.2 million, up 15.5% year on year. It was a mixed quarter for the company, with full-year revenue guidance meeting analysts’ expectations but a significant miss of analysts’ gross margin estimates.

Is SunOpta a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.

This quarter, analysts are expecting SunOpta’s revenue to grow 6.7% year on year to $193.7 million, slowing from the 13.7% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.06 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. SunOpta has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates four times over the last two years.

Looking at SunOpta’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.

Inflation has progressed towards the Fed’s 2% goal as of late, leading to strong stock market performance. Recent rate cuts and the 2024 Presidential election's conclusion added further sparks to the market, and while some of the shelf-stable food stocks have shown solid performance, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 2.5% on average over the last month. SunOpta is down 4.4% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $10.17 (compared to the current share price of $7.14).

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