When you buy amid wreckage, you've just got to accept that rebuilding takes time.
Investors in Tyson Foods
For now, results are both depressed and depressing. Sales fell 5% to about $6.4 billion, and once again the company missed the analyst consensaguess -- though this is a particularly hard sector to accurately forecast. Margins continued to fall apart and the company reversed a year-ago operating profit into a loss this quarter.
For the most part, the weakness was widespread. Chicken revenue was down 8% on a nearly 14% drop in prices, while beef revenue fell 2% on a price drop of 8%. Unfortunately, costs are not easing off -- corn prices have been volatile, but generally rising, and costs for things like freight and packaging have been up as well.
If there's good news, it's that volumes continue to be pretty solid. Only pork saw a volume decline, and so long as folks continue to eat meat, there's a chance that prices can recover. What's more, while export sales aren't a huge part of the story, there's always the chance that the company can focus on growing this business.
Only time will tell how long it will take for producers like Tyson, Smithfield
I'd like to see Tyson do more with prepared foods (similar to Hormel
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).