Why Lamb Weston's Shares Jumped 12% Today
Shares of Lamb Weston (NYSE: LW) rose as much as 12.3% on Friday, boosted by a strong second-quarter earnings report. By 2:30 p.m. EST, the food processing company's stock had cooled down to a gain of 11%.
The Idaho-based frozen potato products specialist saw second-quarter sales rise 12% year over year, landing at $1.02 billion. Adjusted earnings increased by 19% to $0.95 per diluted share. Your average analyst would have settled for earnings near $0.84 per share on revenue in the neighborhood of $965 million. Investors and analysts were expecting soft sales growth due to a poor potato-growing season in places like Minnesota and Canada, but Lamb Weston's farms in Idaho and the Columbia Basin were unaffected, allowing the company to keep the french-fry factories running at full speed in the second quarter.
Source Fool.com