PITTSBURGH (AP) — Kraft Heinz’s fourth-quarter performance fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, as sales climbed slightly but were somewhat hampered by lower shipments of nuts, natural cheese and cold cuts in the United States and cheese and coffee in Canada.
The maker of Oscar Mayer meats, Jell-O pudding and Velveeta cheese earned $8 billion, or $6.52 per share, for the period ended Dec. 30. The latest quarter includes a multibillion dollar gain related to the recent U.S. tax overhaul. A year earlier the Pittsburgh company earned $944 million, or 77 cents per share.
Earnings, adjusted mostly for benefits from the tax law, came to 90 cents per share. That’s below the 96 cents per share analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research expected.
Revenue edged up to $6.88 billion from $6.86 billion as sales improved in Europe, but the results also missed forecasts.
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The company said it’s accelerating its spending on numerous initiatives thanks to the tax overhaul, including $1.3 billion to prefund retirement benefit plans, $800 million in quality and safety-related capital expenditures, and investments of $300 million to “build our capabilities, our people skills and our brands,”
For the year, Kraft Heinz Co. reported a profit of $11 billion, or $8.95 per share, on revenue of $26.23 billion. Its adjusted profit was $3.55 per share.
Shares dipped before the market open on Friday.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on KHC at https://www.zacks.com/ap/KHC