ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE:CAG), North America’s largest packaged-food company, recently reported its earnings for fourth quarter of FY 2013. The company managed to beat the street estimates by $0.01, reporting adjusted diluted EPS of $0.60. Even though the company is very bullish on its future performance in FY 2014 and beyond, it may not perform as expected in the near term. As with many other companies in the food industry, ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) is a good bet for a long-term investment given a three-to-five year investment horizon.
Let’s get a taste of what the company has for its Foolish food-lovers.
Fourth Quarter 2013 — A little too sweet, a little too salty. The sweet…
The company witnessed revenue growth of 7% from its consumer-foods segment. However, the segment only grew by 3% organically, with the majority of the increase, or 5%, coming from the acquisition of Ralcorp, which helped to offset a 1% decline that occurred due to an adverse price/mix.
The company adopted active marketing strategies to boost sales. It used effective management of margins, which offset the high input costs as a result of inflation. As a result, the operating profit increased by 3% to $295.0 million from $288.0 million in the same quarter a year ago on an adjusted basis.
Revenue from the commercial foods segment increased by 3.5%, primarily due to strong performance in the flour mills operations backed by better volumes, a favorable mix and other factors.
Sales from Ralcorp businesses are reported under two divisions – Ralcorp Food Group and Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products. The two segments combined reported an operating profit of $107.8 million.
The salty…
The majority of growth in sales for the quarter was due to the recently acquired business. Organic growth in the consumer foods segment was marginal in the quarter.
The company faced major problems in the commercial foods segment, where it lost a major customer in its Lamb Weston potato operations; that customer did not renew its contract. ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) is expected to have a negative impact of between $0.06 and $0.07 on its EPS for FY 2014 while it replaces its lost revenue. Although Lamb Weston reported an impressive domestic operating performance, it suffered a marginal decline in operating profits from its international operations, primarily due to weak Asian markets.
The company is also expecting a dilution in its FY 2014 EPS of $0.03 as a result of its new joint venture “Ardent Mills” with Cargill and CHS, an integrated agricultural company. Once formed, Ardent Mills is slated to become the largest flour-milling company in the US. The overall impact of Lamb Weston’s operations on the company’s FY 2014 EPS is expected to be approximately 4% given an expected full-year EPS estimate of $2.40.
The road ahead – overall impact
ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) has raised its expected EPS for FY 2014 from $2.15 to $2.40. The company expects that the new joint venture will be accretive to its EPS in the future. It expects to report an annual gain of $300 million in cost-related synergies by 2017 due to the acquisition of Ralcorp, revising its earlier estimate of $225 million.
The company has also announced that it expects minimum growth of 10% in its adjusted EPS for the next three years, which would result in an annual EPS of greater than $3.00 for FY 2017. The expected growth in earnings over the next three-to-four years is estimated on the basis of the synergies that will accrue from the Ralcorp acquisition.
