After missing analyst forecasts in its fourth quarter earnings report, Post Holdings has made acquisitions to diversify its portfolio.
The company reported net sales of $1.4 billion—a decrease of 2.2% over the last year and missing consensus by $30 million, reported Seeking Alpha (Nov. 20). Gross profit was $440.3 million, versus $452.2 a year ago, while adjusted EBITDA was $274.8 million, a decrease of 9.5%.
Q4 Non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.058 missed projections by $0.19; GAAP EPS of $0.83 missed by $0.10.
Despite its weak performance, the company has made two acquisitions recently, the first being Conagra’s Peter Pan peanut butter brand. The companies didn’t disclose financial terms of the deal, but said that an affiliate of Post currently co-manufactures all Peter Pan products including various creamy and crunchy peanut-butter spreads, reported The Wall Street Journal (Dec. 7).
This week, Post announced it was acquiring Almark Foods, an egg company. Post subsidiary Michael Foods will acquire Almark’s plants in Arizona and Tennessee, reported St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Dec. 16).
“Almark Foods grew the retail hard-boiled egg business into a category leader and we are pleased that Michael Foods will be able to take this business to the next level,” Rick Anderson, Almark CEO, said in a statement. He added that Artisan Kitchens, a current division of Almark, is not being acquired as part of this transaction.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the companies expect to close by the end of the first calendar quarter of 2021.
Earlier this month Zacks Equity Research called for the company’s adjusted first quarter FY21 earnings to dip 16% on 3% lower revenue.
