Earnings from Stepan and Hormel

We had two earnings reports this morning. Stepan (SCL) said it made $1.10 per share for its fourth quarter. Analysts had been expecting 88 cents per share. For the year, SCL made $5.12 per share.

“Despite significant challenges during the year, driven by the equipment failure in Ecatepec , the wet weather in the U.S. farm belt, the sulfonation exit in Germany and FX headwinds, the Company exceeded its 2018 record full year adjusted net income and grew adjusted EPS 7%,” said F. Quinn Stepan, Jr. , Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “For the quarter, Surfactant earnings were up due to the insurance recovery in Mexico and improved margins. The Polymer business had a good fourth quarter driven by global rigid polyol growth of 7%. Specialty Products income was down slightly due to customer order patterns but was up significantly on a full year basis.”

The stock is up a bit in today’s trading.

The other report is from Hormel Foods (HRL). This is for Hormel’s fiscal Q1 which ended at the end of January. The Spam people report early so their earnings report tends to blend in with the other stocks whose Q4 ended in December.

For Q1, Hormel made 45 cents per share which matched expectations. Organic sales were up 4%. The company reiterated its full-year forecast for sales ranging between $9.5 billion and $10 billion and EPS between $1.69 and $1.83. These numbers were basically what I had been expecting.

“Organic sales growth met our expectations this quarter as three of our four segments delivered volume and sales growth,” said Jim Snee, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer. “It is encouraging to see Jennie-O Turkey Store deliver a second consecutive quarter of volume, sales and profit growth while continuing to gain back Jennie-O lean ground turkey distribution.

The shares are currently down about 5% today.

Posted by on February 20th, 2020 at 10:47 am


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