CALM - Cal-Maine Foods tallies record revenue on higher pricing strong demand for specialty eggs

Cal-Maine Foods ( NASDAQ: CALM ) traded flat in after-hours action on Tuesday after the company topped estimates with its FQ1 earnings report.

The company generated record revenue with higher average selling prices and strong demand for specialty eggs contributing to the 103% year-over-year sales growth.

The net average selling price per dozen was $2.275 vs. $1.235 a year ago with both specialty and conventional eggs seeing higher prices.

Specialty egg sales were up 34.7% during the quarter by volume.

Operating income was $163.9M vs. -$39.7M a year ago. CALM noted that it continued to navigate through a tight labor market with higher wages and incurred higher distribution costs due to the increase in fuel prices compared to the first quarter a year ago.

Sales of cage-free eggs increased 58% and represented approximately 19.4% of shell egg revenues in FQ1.

Egg supply outlook: "Layer hen numbers reported by the USDA as of September 21, 2022, were 305.3 million, which represents a decrease of 4.6% compared with the layer hen inventory a year ago. The USDA also reported that the hatch from April 2022 through August 2022 decreased 0.5% as compared with the prior-year period. As of September 1, 2022, however, eggs in incubators were up 9.0% year-over-year, indicating that layer flocks may increase in the future."

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