Cal-Maine Foods’ sales climb by 3.9% in the fiscal third quarter

Cal-Maine Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: CALM) said on Monday that its sales came in weaker than expected in the fiscal third quarter. The company, however, beat Wall Street estimates for profit in Q3.

Cal-Maine shares(read more: how to buy stocks) jumped roughly 2.5% on market open on Monday but lost the entire intraday gain in the next hour. The stock is now trading at a per-share price of £28.80. In comparison, Cal-Maine Foods had started the year 2021 at a slightly lower £26.99 per share.

Cal-Maine’s Q3 financial results versus analysts’ estimates

Cal-Maine said that its net income in the third quarter printed at £9.78 million that translates to 20.29 pence per share. In the same quarter last year, its net income stood a slightly higher £9.93 million. In the prior quarter (Q2), the Nasdaq-listed company had recorded £8.95 million of net income.

The egg producer reported a 3.9% annualised increase in Q3 sales to £260.19 million versus the year-ago figure of a lower £250.41 million. According to FactSet, experts had forecast the company to post a higher £267.37 million of sales. Their estimate for per-share earnings was capped at a lower 5.07 pence.

For shell eggs, Cal-Maine highlighted, the average sales price stood at 91 pence per dozen, compared to 90 pence a dozen last year. CEO Dolph Baker commented on the earnings report on Monday and said:

“Sales prices have increased since the end of the third fiscal quarter, although they are not expected to approach the high prices realized in the fourth quarter last fiscal year.”

Cal-Maine declares 2.46 pence per share of a cash dividend

The Jackson-headquartered company said that speciality eggs sales made up 41.5% of total revenue from egg sales in the recent quarter. In Q3 of the previous year, speciality eggs sales had accounted for a lower 37.2% of the total egg sales revenue.

The board declared 2.46 pence per share of a cash dividend on Monday, after suspending returns to shareholders previously to cushion the economic blow from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In separate news from the U.S., Truist Securities upgraded Twitter Inc. on Monday from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’.

Cal-Maine performed fairly downbeat in the stock market last year with an annual decline of close to 10%. At the time of writing, it is valued at £1.43 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 29.57.