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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (360752)	11/29/2007 3:39:49 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576346

Heinz Profit Up 19% on Higher Sales By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 9:51 a.m. ET PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Food maker H.J. Heinz Co. said Thursday its second-quarter profit climbed almost 19 percent, boosted by strong growth in Europe and emerging markets and by infant nutrition sales. The Pittsburgh-based maker of ketchup and sauces said profit rose to $227 million, or 71 cents per share, for the three months ended Oct. 31 from $191.6 million, or 57 cents per share, during the same period last year. Sales jumped 13 percent to $2.52 billion from $2.23 billion last year. The results beat Wall Street estimates. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected earnings per share of 67 cents before one-time items on revenue of $2.4 billion. But its shares slipped 25 cents to $46.94 in morning trading Thursday. Heinz has been restructuring its business to focus mainly on ketchup and sauces, meals and snacks and infant nutrition. The company said Thursday it had increased its quarterly marketing spending by 23 percent. Like other food makers, Heinz has faced higher commodity costs for dairy, sweeteners and oils. It has raised prices this year to offset the higher costs, but executives have said the company is witnessing its worst commodity inflation in years. For the first six months of the year, Heinz earned $432.3 million, or $1.34 a share, up from $385.7 million, or $1.15 a share, a year ago. Revenue rose to $4.77 billion from $4.29 billion a year ago. In August, Heinz shareholders re-elected activist investor Nelson Peltz and a Peltz ally, former Snapple executive Michael F. Weinstein, to the company's board of directors. Peltz and Weinstein won seats a year earlier after a lengthy proxy battle. In September, Peltz increased his stake in the company to 6 percent, or about 19 million shares, from about 5.6 percent. Heinz has said it expects full-year earnings of $2.54 to $2.60 per share, but raised the top end of the range Thursday to $2.62 per share. It said it is on track to post record full-year sales. ------ On the Net: H.J. Heinz Co.: heinz.com Copyright 2007 The Associated Press