Tyson Foods Q4 Profit Misses Estimates

(RTTNews) - Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN) reported fourth-quarter net income attributable to company of $258 million or $0.63 per share compared to $137 million or $0.35 per share, last year. Adjusted net income per share attributable to Tyson was $0.83, for the quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of $0.88 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Sales were up to $10.51 billion from $10.10 billion, previous year. Analysts expected revenue of $10.34 billion for the quarter. Adjusted sales were $9.76 billion compared to $9.78 billion, last year.

For fiscal 2015, the company's adjusted earnings per share was $3.15, an increase of 7% over prior year. Adjusted sales were $40.6 billion, an increase of 9% over prior year.

For fiscal 2016, Tyson Foods projects adjusted earnings per share in the range of $3.50 to $3.65, consistent with the company's goal of averaging at least 10% annual EPS growth over time. The company expects sales to approximate $41 billion in fiscal 2016. Domestic protein production is expected to increase approximately 3% from fiscal 2015 levels. The company expects disruptions related to export bans to continue in fiscal 2016.

In fiscal 2016, Tyson expects to increase share repurchases under its share repurchase program. During the first quarter of fiscal 2016 as of November 20, 2015, the company has repurchased approximately 4.4 million shares for $200 million, excluding shares repurchased to offset dilution from equity compensation plans.

Beginning in fiscal 2017, Tyson anticipates to increase annual dividends approximately $0.10 per year.