Pilgrim’s Pride results miss estimates, company hires new CFO

GREELEY — Chicken supplier Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (Nasdaq: PPC) missed analyst estimates for its results in the last three months of 2020 and closed the year with a significant drop in net profits.

In results covering the final quarter of 2020, the Greeley company posted revenues of just less than $3.12 billion and zero cents in its adjusted earnings-per-share figure, missing Wall Street consensus estimates by $190 million and 27 cents, respectively, according to data from finance site Seeking Alpha.

In a statement, Pilgrim’s said those revenues were primarily driven higher than in prior quarters due to a slight restart of normal economic activity as vaccinations started rolling out across the world.

The company also took a $75 million charge after agreeing to settle a class-action lawsuit from multiple distributors, grocers and restaurant chains stemming from an ongoing antitrust investigation over whether the large-scale chicken supplier industry colluded in a decade-long price fixing effort.

That settlement doesn’t include some companies that are pursuing their own antitrust litigation outside of that class-action group and is different from the $110.52 million Pilgrim’s paid to settle antitrust charges from the U.S. Department of Justice.

For all of 2020, the company posted a 6% increase in year-over-year revenues at $12.4 billion but had profits of $94.75 million. That amounts to a 79.21% drop from its $456.53 million in profits through 2019.

In a separate announcement, Pilgrim’s hired Matthew Galvanoni as its chief financial officer to replace former CFO Fabio Sandri, who was promoted to CEO after the company fired Jayson Penn.

Penn, along with several other former Pilgrim’s executives, was charged individually by federal prosecutors in connection with the larger antitrust investigation across the industry. He awaits trial.

Prior to joining Pilgrim’s, Galvanoni was vice president of finance for animal feed supplier Ingredion Inc. (NYSE: INGR) since April 2016.

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