Dean Foods Q4 Adj. Profit Tops View, But Sales Miss; Sees Q1 Profit In Line View

(RTTNews) - Dairy producer Dean Foods Co. (DF) reported a profit for the fourth-quarter that significantly increased from last year. But sales for the quarter declined about 16% from the prior year.

Adjusted earnings per share topped analysts' expectations, while quarterly sales missed their estimates.

In pre-market trade, DF is currently trading at $20.90, up $0.43 or 2.10%.

Looking ahead for the first quarter, the company expects adjusted earnings to be between $0.32 and $0.42 per share. Analysts project first-quarter earnings of $0.32 per share. For the first quarter 2016, as compared to the prior year period, the Company expects total volumes to decline in the low single digits.

For the full year the company expects its capital expenditures to be approximately $160 million, consistent with its capital spend in 2015.

Net income for the fourth-quarter surged to $18.48 million or $0.20 per share from $5.28 million or $0.06 per share in the prior year.

Quarterly adjusted net income jumped to $32.80 million or $0.36 per share from $7.08 million or $0.08 per share in the prior year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.34 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Income from continuing operations for the quarter surged to $18.82 million from $5.74 million last year.

But, net sales for the quarter declined to $2.02 billion from last year's $2.40 billion. Wall Street expected revenues of $2.07 billion.

Total volume across all products was 658 million gallons for the fourth quarter of 2015, a 3.6% decline compared to total volume of 683 million gallons in the fourth quarter of 2014.