Kraft Heinz Co Q4 Earnings Beat As Company Sees Even Bigger Cost Cuts Coming

Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC) late Wednesday [Feb 15, 2017 | 4:20pm] posted better than expected fourth quarter earnings results and said that its merger-related estimated cost savings will be even greater than originally anticipated.

Written by StockNews.com

The Pittsburgh-based food and beverage giant reported Q4 EPS of $0.91, which was $0.04 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $0.87. Revenues fell 3.7% from last year to $6.86 billion, also topping analysts’ view of $6.76 billion.

Kraft Heinz noted that Organic Net Sales rose 1.6% from the year-ago period, while pricing decreased 0.1 percentage points.

KHC, which was created in the mega merger of Kraft Foods and Heinz Co last year, now expects its multi-year Integration Program to put out $1.7 billion in cumulative pre-tax savings by the end of this year, up from $1.5 billion previously.

The company commented via press release:

“We finished 2016 consistent with our expectations and with good momentum heading into 2017,” said Kraft Heinz CEO Bernardo Hees. “Looking forward, our objectives and opportunities are clear. But we need to sharpen our focus on profitable sales, and further improve our capabilities and execution to deliver another year of strong, sustainable growth in 2017.”

...Year-to-date, KHC has gained 4.32%, versus a 5.10% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

KHC currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #1 of 62 stocks in the Food Makers category.