Smithfield Foods Q1 Profit Drops - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Packaged pork and meat products maker Smithfield Foods, Inc. (SFD) announced significantly lower net income of $39.5 million, or $0.27 per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2014, versus $61.7 million, or $0.40 per share, reported a year back.

However, the firm clocked sales of $3.4 billion for the recent quarter, up 10% from the prior year's $3.09 billion.

On average, 5 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings per share of $0.47, on $3.19 billion in revenue for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

The company's President and Chief Executive stated, "The key driver of our business continues to be packaged meats where we achieved solid margins, while growing volume, as well as market share and distribution across a number of our core brands and product categories in the first quarter."

The company's Smithfield, Armour, Kretschmar, Curly's, Margherita and Carando brands all grew in the first quarter. Its Armour and Curly's brands performed especially well, up double-digits. Market share increased across the cooked dinner sausage, dry sausage and marinated pork categories.

Commenting on the future, Smithfield Foods said: "The first quarter should mark the low point of the year for Smithfield. We will continue to execute on our long-term strategic growth plan, focused on improving our earnings stream and migrating Smithfield further towards a consumer packaged meats company."