6:34 am Sanderson Farms beats by $0.40, beats on revs; extends stock repurchase program to Feb 2017 ( SAFM) : Reports Q1 (Jan) earnings of $1.25 per share, $0.40 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.85; revenues fell 1.8% year/year to $584.8 mln vs the $570.69 mln consensus.
The Company also announced that its Board of Directors has extended to February 24, 2017, its stock repurchase program approved February 16, 2012, to repurchase up to 1.0 million shares from time to time at prevailing prices in open market transactions or in negotiated purchases, subject to market conditions, share price and other considerations. According to Sanderson, market prices for poultry products were mixed during the first quarter of fiscal 2014 compared with the same period of fiscal 2013. A simple average of the Georgia dock price for whole chickens was ~6.5 percent higher in the Company's first fiscal quarter compared with the same period in 2013, and currently stands near a record $1.0450 per pound. "We expect market conditions in the retail grocery store market to remain strong as chicken will compete once again during 2014 with high priced beef and pork...while we benefited during the summer of 2013 from menu shifts toward chicken items, and away from relatively high priced beef at food service establishments, whether or not we get a similar benefit during 2014 is yet to be seen...While we expect lower grain prices for the fiscal year and we experienced lower feed costs during the first quarter, grain prices have moved higher during February as a result of USDA's lower than expected corn carryout estimate reported earlier this month." |
