Kraft Raises Revenue Projection
Kraft Foods
(KFT)
posted better-than-expected results for the first quarter Wednesday and guided higher for the year, despite higher commodity costs.
The Northfield, Ill.-based food and beverage giant said it earned $608 million, or 40 cents a share, in the first quarter, which fell from a profit of $702 million, or 43 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding items, Kraft said it had a profit of 44 cents a share, which was unchanged from a year ago.
Quarterly revenue rose 20.8% to $10.4 billion from $8.6 billion in the year-ago quarter, with an 8.3% boost from acquisitions and 5.1% from currency-exchange rates. Analysts were looking for a profit of 40 cents a share on revenue of $9.77 billion, according to Thomson Financial.
CEO Irene Rosenfeld said 2008 "is off to an excellent start, and we expect our results to continue to strengthen as the year progresses. And, while input costs remain high, I am confident that our ongoing programs to lower overhead costs and invest in our brands will enable us to deliver our targeted earnings in 2008 and beyond."
Looking ahead, Kraft raised its full-year outlook for organic net revenue growth, saying it will be at least 5%, up from a previous expectation of at least 4%. The company cited further pricing actions to offset rising input costs.
Kraft also forecast that earnings for the year will be at least $1.56 a share, or $1.90 excluding items. Wall Street is currently expecting earnings of $1.89 a share for the year, when items are taken out.
Shares of Kraft were adding 3.6% to $31.87.
Altria
(MO) - Get Report
, which spun off Kraft in 2007, was tacking on 0.4%.
Among other food companies,
General Mills
(GIS) - Get Report
,
ConAgra
(CAG) - Get Report
,
Sara Lee
(SLE)
and
Smithfield Foods
(SFD)
were trading fractionally to the upside.