Shares of Kraft Heinz Co.
KHC,
shed 0.9% toward a five-week low in premarket trading Wednesday, after the parent of Heinz ketchup, Jell-O and Cheez Whiz consumer foods reported second-quarter sales that came up short of expectations, as an 11% jump in pricing wasn’t enough to offset a 7% drop in volume and mix and market share pressure. Net income rose to $1.00 billion, or 81 cents a share, from $265 million, or 21 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of 79 cents beat the FactSet consensus of 76 cents. Sales grew 2.6% $6.72 billion, but was below the FactSet consensus of $6.80 billion, as North America sales edged up 0.8% to $5.08 billion and international sales increased 8.5% to $1.64 billion. For 2023, the company affirmed its adjusted EPS guidance range of $2.83 to $2.91. “While we did face headwinds in the second quarter, particularly within U.S. market share performance, the action plans we laid out in the first quarter resulted in share trend improvement each month,” said Chief Executive Miguel Patricio. The stock has shed 9.1% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the S&P 500
SPX,
has gained 11.1%.
