Higher prices help Kraft beat profit forecasts
Kraft Foods Inc
The maker of Cadbury chocolate, Oreo cookies and Philadelphia cream cheese saw its shares dip 0.2 percent to $33.32 in after-hours trading.
Edward Jones analyst Matthew Arnold said the quarterly performance looked good but that it was unclear how much was related to commodity hedges, which would have somewhat insulated Kraft from volatile prices.
Kraft's quarterly net income fell to $802 million, or 45 cents per share, from $1.88 billion, or $1.16 per share, a year earlier when a gain from the sale of discontinued operations boosted its profit.
Excluding items, earnings were 52 cents per share, beating the average analyst forecast of 47 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Net revenue rose 11 percent to $12.6 billion. Excluding the impact of acquisitions, net revenue rose 4.6 percent as higher prices helped offset the impact of lost sales because of a later Easter holiday this year.
Kraft expects organic net revenue growth of at least 4 percent this year, excluding the impact of calendar changes. It expects a profit, excluding items, of at least $2.20 a share.
In February, when Kraft was selling bagged Starbucks Corp
Kraft stopped selling Starbucks coffee in March, and has since said it plans to bring its Gevalia coffee to supermarkets instead.
(Reporting by Martinne Geller. Editing by Robert MacMillan)
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