Campbell Soup Company ( NYSE: CPB ) pushed higher in early trading on Wednesday after besting consensus marks with its FQ1 earnings report by a comfortable margin.
Campbell Soup ( CPB ) CEO Mark Clouse said the company used a a combination of inflation-driven pricing actions and productivity improvements to help mitigate the significant inflationary pressure it saw in the quarter. Despite the volatile economic environment, CPB raised guidance for 2023.
Organic sales were up 15% during the quarter with the combined impact of inflation-driven pricing and sales allowances more than offsetting volume declines. Adjusted gross profit margin decreased 30 basis points to 32.2% during the quarter as continued cost inflation and higher other supply chain costs as well as unfavorable volume/mix were mostly mitigated by inflation-driven pricing actions and productivity improvements. Adjusted EBIT increased 15% to $449M primarily due to higher adjusted gross profit, partially offset by higher marketing and selling expenses and higher adjusted other expenses.
Campbell Soup ( CPB ) said its multi-year cost savings program led to $10M in savings in FQ1 inclusive of Snyder’s-Lance integration synergies, bringing total program-to-date cost savings to $860M. CPB remains on track to deliver savings of $1B by the end of fiscal 2025.
Looking ahead, the food giant expects net sales growth in the range of +7% to +9% vs. the prior view for +4% to +6% and the consensus mark of 5.12%. Adjusted EPS of $2.90 to $3.00 is anticipated vs. $2.85 to $2.95 prior and $2.91 consensus.
Shares of Campbell Soup ( CPB ) moved up 1.95% in premarket action on Wednesday to $54.03 following the earnings topper.
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Campbell Soup sees higher pricing feed earnings beat, guidance hike