Kellogg Company reported first-quarter comparable earnings per share of $1.06 compared to $0.96, prior year.
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Non-GAAP, comparable earnings per share were up more than 10% from the year-earlier quarter, because of productivity savings and a planned discrete tax benefit, which more than offset the negative impact of currency translation.
Comparable net income was $376 million, an increase of 10.9% from prior year. Non-GAAP, currency-neutral comparable earnings per share increased by more than 13% year-on-year.
On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of $0.99 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
First-quarter reported net income was $262 million or $0.74 per share compared to $175 million or $0.49 per share, prior year.
Kellogg's first quarter reported earnings per share increased by 51% from the prior-year quarter, due to year-ago interest costs related to a bond tender and a lower tax rate, partially offset by higher up-front costs related to the Project K restructuring program and adverse currency translation.
Currency-neutral comparable operating profit increased 2.2% to $527 million.
First-quarter net sales were $3.25 billion compared to $3.40 billion, prior year. Comparable net sales were down 5.4%.
Currency-neutral comparable net sales were $3.24 billion, down 4.4% from prior year.
Analysts expected revenue of $3.28 billion, for the quarter.
The company said its first-quarter reported and currency-neutral comparable net sales decreased, owing to softness in underlying consumption, particularly early in the quarter, as well as the timing of shipments from fourth-quarter, resulting in a reduction in trade inventory in first quarter.
The company reaffirmed its guidance for currency-neutral operating profit and earnings per share, as well as for cash flow, as strong productivity performance offsets a softened outlook for currency-neutral comparable net sales.
Because of the slow start in first-quarter, and to reflect only moderate improvement in developed markets' recent consumption trends, the company now forecasts a decline in currency-neutral comparable net sales of about 3% in 2017, versus previous guidance of approximately 2%. ■