What happened
Shares of Campbell Soup (CPB 0.62%) jumped on Tuesday, rising as much as 8.1%. As of 12:17 p.m. EST, the stock was up 5%.
The stock's rise follows the company's earnings release for its first quarter of fiscal 2019. Higher-than-expected revenue and earnings per share were likely the main reason for bullishness toward the stock on Tuesday.
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So what
Campbell reported first-quarter net sales of $2.69 billion, up 25% year over year. Excluding the impact of recently completed acquisitions, sales declined 3% during this same time frame. On average, analysts were expecting sales of $2.67 billion.
Campbell's adjusted EPS for the quarter came in at $0.79, down from $0.92 in the year-ago quarter. This beat a consensus analyst estimate for $0.70.
in the company's first-quarter earnings release, interim CEO Keith McLoughlin said: "We are on track with our plans and are encouraged by the progress we are making against the significant actions we announced on Aug. 30 to simplify, focus, and optimize our portfolio. Through considerable cross-functional efforts in October, we were able to overcome the supply-chain challenges that we faced early in the quarter and deliver results that enabled us to reaffirm our fiscal 2019 guidance."
Now what
While Campbell management expects its efforts to streamline operations and revitalize its business will eventually return the company to long-term organic growth, this isn't expected to happen in fiscal 2019. This fiscal year will be "a transition year as we fully operationalize our plans to turn around Campbell," McLoughlin said in the earnings release.
Management guided for full-year fiscal 2019 adjusted EPS to be between $2.40 and $2.50, down from $2.87 in fiscal 2018.
