Omaha-Citing progress on cost savings and divestitures and expectations of increased efficiencies, ConAgra Foods Inc. said last week it expects earnings per share for fiscal 2007 to increase by $.05 over previous estimates, to $1.17-$1.22. In the meantime, ConAgra released preliminary results for the first quarter ending Aug. 27, 2006. Company-wide, income from continuing operations was off 66 percent, to $108.5 million ($.21 per diluted share) on net sales of $2.69 billion, from the year-ago $319.2 million ($.61 per share) and $2.67 billion. Results were preliminary since the company results from discontinued businesses have not been finalized. First-quarter operating profit at the company’s Trading and Merchandising segment, which includes fertilizer trading, was off 70.8 percent, to $15.6 million on sales of $205.4 million from the year-ago $53.5 million and $260 million, respectively. ConAgra said the profit decrease was primarily driven by less favorable trading conditions for energy-related products and agricultural commodities, as well as lower selling prices for wholesale fertilizer operations. T&M constituted 8 percent of total company first quarter sales.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain