Campbell Soup shares soar on strong earnings, outlook

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - Shares of Campbell Soup jumped to a 16-year high after the soup, snacks and pasta maker's fiscal first-quarter adjusted profit topped analysts' estimates and the company increased its full-year earnings forecast.

For the period ended Nov. 1, the Camden, New Jersey-based company earned $194 million, or 62 cents per share. That is down from $248 million, or 78 cents per share, a year ago.

But its earnings adjusted for one-time costs came to 95 cents per share, beating Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 76 cents per share.

Revenue came in at $2.2 billion, meeting Wall Street forecasts.

Campbell Soup Co. expects full-year adjusted earnings to rise by 4 percent to 7 percent to a range of $2.75 to $2.83 per share. Its previous guidance was for adjusted earnings to increase 3 percent to 5 percent.

Analysts polled by FactSet predict $2.59 per share.

The company lowered its full-year sales outlook due to pressures from currency translation. It now anticipates sales being flat to down 1 percent. Its prior forecast was for sales to be flat to up 1 percent.

Besides soup, Campbell also sells Pepperidge Farm cookies, V8 juice and Prego pasta sauce. In June it expanded its fresh food products by buying Garden Fresh Gourmet, a maker of salsa, hummus and tortilla chips, for $231 million.

Campbell shares rose $1.54, or 3 percent, to close at $51.33. Earlier, its shares rose to $52.48, the stock's highest point since January 1999.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CPB at http://www.zacks.com/ap/CPB

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Keywords: Campbell Soup, Earnings Report