For the quarter ended March 30, the company had income of $95 million, equal to 26 cents per share on the common stock, which compared with $166 million, or 44 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. Sales for the quarter were $8,419 million, up 2 percent from $8,268 million.
“Our second quarter typically is our most challenging, and this quarter was no exception,” said Donnie Smith, president and CEO. “However, our business is structured to withstand adverse conditions, and we worked through the issues while positioning ourselves for what we believe will be a strong performance in the second half of the year.
“In our Chicken segment, we continued to emphasize operational efficiencies, upgrading our product mix and pricing to offset $165 million in additional feed costs for the quarter. Our Beef segment suffered margin compression as consumers opted for the relative value of chicken. Our Pork segment faced periods of supply and demand imbalance after the loss of some export markets while soft demand in food service impacted our Prepared Foods segment.
“Our EPS for the quarter wasn’t at the level we’d like, but on an adjusted basis we’re about where we were at this point last year.”
The Chicken segment had operating income of $78 million, down 48 percent from $145 million during the same quarter of the previous year. The segment had sales of $3,094 million, up 6 percent from $2,911 million.
The Beef segment sustained a loss of $26 million, which compared with a loss of $1 million during the same quarter of the previous year. The segment had sales of $3,447, up 2 percent from $3,369 million.
Operating income within the Prepared Foods was $28 million, down 36 percent from $44 million during the same quarter of the previous year. The segment had sales of $803 million, down slightly from $807 million.
For the six months ended March 30, the company as a whole saw income decline 17 percent to $268 million, or 74 cents per share, which compared with $322 million, or 86 cents per share, during the same period of the previous year. Sales for the six months were $16,821 million, up 1 percent from $16,597 million.
