Cal-Maine Stock Sinks 7% on Earnings Plunge Driven By Lower Egg Prices
Cal-Maine Foods (NASDAQ: CALM) stock fell 7.3% on Wednesday following the country's largest shell egg producer's Tuesday afternoon release of its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 (ended Sept. 2). Revenue and earnings fell short of Wall Street's expectations, with the bottom-line miss a big one.
A sizable annual drop in the company's realized prices for its shell eggs dragged its sales and profit down substantially from the year-ago period when average U.S. egg prices were surging (see chart below) due largely to a severe outbreak of avian flu, decreasing the number of egg-laying hens in the country. In other words, the company faced extremely tough year-over-year comparables, as the year-ago period was unusually profitable.
What a difference a year makes. In 2023, Cal-Maine stock, including dividends, is down 12.1% through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 index has returned 12.4% over this period. In 2022, Cal-Maine returned 51.9%, demolishing the broader market, as the S&P 500 was in the red by more than 18%. Indeed, last year, Cal-Maine stock was one of the year's top performers in the entire consumer staple sector, including food stocks and other necessities.
Source Fool.com
