Companies and Brands

What's So Great About Kraft Heinz Earnings

Chris Lange

Published: August 3, 2018 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 7:56 pm

Kraft Heinz Co. (NASDAQ: KHC) reported its most recent quarterly results before the markets opened on Friday. The company said that it had $1.00 in earnings per share (EPS) and $6.69 billion in revenue, and consensus estimates had called for $0.92 in EPS on revenue of $6.59 billion. In the same period of last year, the food maker said it had EPS of $0.98 and $6.68 billion in revenue.

During the most recent quarter, organic net sales decreased 0.4% compared with last year. Pricing increased 1.3 percentage points, driven by pricing to offset local input costs in Rest of World markets and higher pricing in North America that more than offset increased in-store and new product activity in Europe, Middle East Africa (EMEA).

In terms of its segments, the company reported as follows:

• United States net sales declined 1.9% year over year to $4.51 billion.
• Canada net sales declined 4.5% to $564 million.
• EMEA net sales increased 8.7% to $703 million.
• Rest of World net sales increased 13.5% to $906 million.

In the report, the company did not offer any guidance for the third quarter. However, the consensus estimates call for $0.93 in EPS and $6.32 billion in revenue for the quarter.

Bernardo Hees, Kraft Heinz CEO, commented:

Our results through the first half were stronger than the expectations we put forward as recently as three months ago, and we have been even more encouraged by our recent performance in the marketplace. We believe we are now in a position to drive sustainable top-line growth from a strong pipeline of new product, marketing and whitespace initiatives that are backed by investments in capabilities for brand and category advantage. And while cost inflation on many fronts has been holding back our bottom line, we expect our profitability to improve by year-end, with further momentum into 2019.

Shares of Kraft Heinz closed Thursday at $59.40, with a consensus analyst price target of $67.52 and a 52-week range of $54.11 to $87.58. Following the announcement, the stock was up about 7% at $63.50 in early trading indications Friday.