Hormel Foods has a problem with turkey and with nuts.
The food company, which makes canned lunch meat Spam, slashed its fiscal-year outlook after net sales dropped in its third quarter. Management attributed the guidance cut to lower prices for raw turkey and private-label snack nuts, a challenging consumer environment, and the sale in July of its Brazilian brand Ceratti, which handles processed cold cuts and meats.
Shares dropped 9.1% on Thursday to $21.57.
Hormel Foods' net sales dropped 2% to $2.96 billion, missing analysts' estimates of $3.03 billion. The company also posted adjusted earnings of 37 cents a share, slightly lower than Wall Street's expectations of 35 cents.
Lower prices for commodity turkey and private label snack nuts led to a 4% drop in retail sales during the third fiscal quarter, according to Hormel.
For the fiscal year ending Oct. 31, 2027, the packaged-food company now expects net sales to range from $12.1 billion to $12.2 billion, below a previous range of $12.2 billion to $12.5 billion.
Oppenheimer analysts view the earnings as a mixed bag. They expect the stock to trade lower, but will continue to keep an eye on whether the company can bounce back to its long-term goals of 2% to 3% net sales growth and 5% to 7% operating profit growth.