Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) was out with quarterly earnings Wednesday.
The food company, based in Camden, New Jersey, reported third-quarter net Earnings Per Share (EPS) of $0.28; Adjusted Net EPS of $0.56.
Net Sales from continuing operations increased 16%; Total combined net sales were $2.388 billion.
Cash flow from operations increased to $1.1 billion from $1.0 billion a year ago due primarily to significant improvements from the company’s working capital management efforts, partly offset by lower cash earnings.
In line with the company’s commitment to returning value to shareholders, during the first nine months of fiscal 2019, the company paid $318 million of cash dividends reflecting the quarterly dividend rate of $0.35 per share.
CEO Mark Clause remarked, "Our results this quarter were ahead of our expectations, making it the third consecutive quarter that we met or exceeded our outlook. I am also pleased to see profitability trends are improving, driven by sequential gross margin improvement."
In April, the company announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell its Bolthouse Farms business. As a result of this, and along with the recently completed divestitures of the U.S. refrigerated soup and Garden Fresh Gourmet businesses in the third quarter of fiscal 2019, Campbell Fresh is now reported as discontinued operations.
Total combined sales from continuing and discontinued operations increased 21% to $7.8 billion reflecting a 23-point benefit from the acquisitions of Snyder’s-Lance and Pacific Foods. Adjusted combined EBIT increased 1% to $1.1 billion. Adjusted net EPS declined 19% to $2.13 per share.
CPB shares gained $2.69, or 7.1%, to $40.81
