Campbell Soup Co. Falls On Lower Profit

(RTTNews) - Shares of processed food and snack company Campbell Soup Co. (CPB) are falling more than 5% Thursday morning after reporting lower profit in the fourth quarter.

Earnings from continuing operations in the fourth quarter declined to $96 million or $0.32 per share from $288 million, or $0.95 per share a year ago.

Excluding one-time items, earnings were $170 million or $0.56 per share, in line with the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson-Reuters of $0.56 per share.

Quarterly sales, however, increased to $1.987 billion from $1.873 billion a year ago. The consensus estimate was for $1.99 billion.

Looking forward to the full year, the company expects net sales grow 4%-6% from $8.562 billion reported last year.

Adjusted EPS for the year is expected between $2.85 and $2.95. Analysts expect earnings of $2.85 per share on revenue growth of 0.90%.

CPB, currently at $47.44, has traded in the range of $39.76-$51.94 in the past 1 year.