DJ Smithfield/Outlook -2: Year-Ago 4Q EPS 22c/Shr >SFD
SMITHFIELD, Va. (Dow Jones)--Smithfield Foods Inc. (SFD), citing weak prices for hogs and fresh meat, lowered its fourth-quarter earnings guidance to between 3 cents and 5 cents a share.
Thomson First Call predicts the company will earn 10 cents a share in the fourth quarter ending April 27, based a poll of nine analysts.
In late February, the company said it expected its fiscal fourth-quarter results to be better than its most recent third quarter, when the company earned $5.3 million, or 5 cents a share, on sales of about $2 billion during the fiscal third quarter of 2003. However, the company also said then that it did not expect fourth-quarter results to exeed results from a year earlier, when the company earned $24.9 million, or 22 cents a share, on sales of $1.96 billion.
Smithfield said its hog production group has been unprofitable throughout the quarter. Processed meats and beef operations have been healthy, but not enough to offset the hog production.
The company expects a return to hog profitability by the first quarter of fiscal 2004.
In a press release Friday, the pork and processed meats company said it expects its fiscal 2004 earnings to be well above those of fiscal 2003. First Call predicts the company will earn 29 cents a share for 2003 and $1.51 a share for 2004.
For the full fiscal year of 2002, the company earned $196.9 million, or $1.78 a share, on sales of $7.36 billion.
The company will report its fourth quarter results on June 4.
The company's shares are unavailable for late trading.
-Thomas Derpinghaus; Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5400
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