Pilgrim’s Pride beats earning expectations by $40M

GREELEY  — Chicken producer Pilgrim’s Pride Inc. (Nasdaq: PPC) saw modest gains in sales in the past quarter, telling stock analysts that it was confident in the future of chicken demand.

In its Q3 filings released Thursday morning, the Greeley company said it posted $2.78 billion in sales for the quarter and 44 cents of earnings per share, beating Wall Street consensus estimates by $40 million and 5 cents per share respectively. It posted a $112 million profit, compared with $52 million in the same quarter during 2018.

Sales increased 3 percent year-over-year for the company, which attributed the increase to a difficult Q3 2018 in the commodities market and subsequent recovery.

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The company struck a confident tone when discussing the earnings with analysts, saying it was diversifying its portfolio into different global markets and types of meats with its recent acquisition of British pork producer Tulip Ltd. Executives were also confident that the company could capture any new meat demand abroad if the United States ratifies any of the slew of trade deals it’s currently pursuing.

“Final approval and implementation of new trade agreements with trading partners should gradually reduce the amount of domestic protein availability, drive prices of competing meats higher and support an increase in chicken demand.,” CEO Jayson Penn said.

Pilgrim’s Pride stock was mostly flat after reporting earnings in the morning, increasing 3 percent to close trading Thursday at $30.36 per share.