By Dean Seal

Sysco pared back its guidance for the fiscal year after sales growth was limited in the latest completed quarter by weakening volumes.

The Houston-based foodservice distributor on Tuesday said it now expects sales to rise about 3% and adjusted earnings to rise about 1% for the fiscal year that concludes at the end of the current quarter. It had previously been looking for 4% to 5% sales growth and 6% to 7% growth in adjusted earnings.

For the fiscal third quarter that ended March 29, Sysco posted a profit of $401 million, or 82 cents a share, compared with $1.3 billion, or $2.64 a share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

Stripping out one-time items, adjusted earnings were 96 cents a share. Analysts polled by FactSet had been expecting $1.02 a share.

Sales increased 1.1% to $19.6 billion, below analyst projections for $20 billion, according to FactSet.

The company's U.S. foodservice operations business saw lower volumes due to negative industry foot traffic and some planned business investments. Sales in its international foodservice operations were down slightly due to foreign currency fluctuations.

Chief Executive Kevin Hourican said the quarter was also impacted by California wildfires, poor weather and, more recently, weakening consumer confidence.

"Each of these variables had a negative impact on foot traffic to restaurants which led the quarter, in total, to fall short of our internal expectations," Hourican said.

Shares were down 5.7% at $66.1 in premarket trading.

Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2025 08:42 ET (12:42 GMT)

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