Lamb Weston Touches New High After Q1 Results

(RTTNews) - Shares of Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (LW) touched a new 52-week high of $83.65 this morning after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter earnings.

Lamb Weston produces, distributes, and markets value-added frozen potato products.

Net income in the first quarter jumped to $231.9 million or $1.60 per share from $29.8 million or $0.20 per share a year ago.

The company said the increase was driven by a $141.3 million increase in unrealized mark-to-market adjustments associated with natural gas and electricity hedging contracts in the Company's joint venture in Europe, higher income from operations, and a $15.1 million gain recognized in connection with the company's acquisition of an additional 40 percent interest in Lamb Weston Alimentos Modernos S.A., its joint venture in Argentina.

Excluding one-time items, earnings were $0.75, that beat the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson-Reuters of $0.49 per share.

Sales for the quarter increased 14% year-on-year to $1.126 billion. The consensus estimate was for $1.13 billion.

Looking forward, the company reaffirmed its financial targets for fiscal 2023, with sales of $4.7 billion-$4.8 billion and adjusted EPS of $2.45-$2.85.

Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $2.79 per share on revenue of $4.77 billion.

"We continue to manage through this difficult macro environment and are on track to deliver the higher end of our fiscal 2023 financial targets, including gross margins approaching normalized levels during the second half of the year," said Tom Werner, President and CEO.

Currently LW is at $81.27, up 3%.