Dean Foods Swings To Loss In Q4, Sees Difficult First Quarter; Shares Fall

(RTTNews) - Dean Foods Co. (DF) Tuesday reported a loss for the fourth quarter compared to a profit last year, reflecting loss on early retirement of debt, restructuring charges as well as lower sales. The firm noted that it faced significant challenges in inflationary commodity environment and through competitive pressures on its business.

Looking ahead, the company expects first quarter to be its most difficult quarter of this year, and anticipates first half of 2014 to be particularly difficult.

For the fourth quarter, net loss attributable to the company was $37.68 million or $0.40 per share, compared with a net profit of $28.13 million or $0.30 per share in the prior year.

The firm said its latest quarter included $63 million, net of tax, loss on early retirement of debt, $10 million of restructuring charges, and other one-time or non-recurring items.

On an adjusted basis, earnings from continuing operations for the recent quarter were $0.18 per share, while the company posted $0.23 per share last year.

On average, 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings per share of $0.19 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Net sales for the quarter declined to $2.30 billion from $2.46 billion a year ago. Nine analysts estimated revenues of $2.27 billion for the quarter.

The firm said it continued to make solid progress against its cost savings targets, including the planned closure of eight to twelve or 10 to 15 percent, of its manufacturing facilities by mid-2014.

Gregg Tanner, chief executive officer of the company stated, "In 2013, Dean Foods successfully transformed itself, generating more than $2 billion in shareholder value, substantially deleveraging the company, and focusing the company on its core dairy business."

Looking ahead to the first quarter, the company expects adjusted earnings per share to be about break-even with three cents of potential risk or benefit implied.

For full-year 2014, Dean Foods expects adjusted earnings to be $0.73 to $0.86 per share.

DF is currently trading at $13.85, down 8.68 percent on the NYSE on more than average volume.