Meat giant Tyson Foods recorded strong revenue growth and profits as it integrates its recent acquisition of Hillshire Brands into an already beefed up food conglomerate.
The Springdale-based protein company posted fourth quarter net income of $137 million, down from $261 million a year ago, on revenue of $10.105 billion. However, adjusted net income per share grew by 24% to 87 cents per share for the latest quarter, up from 70 cents per share for the 2013 fourth quarter.
For the full year, Tyson Foods turned a $864 million profit on revenue of $37.58 billion. In the previous fiscal year, Tyson recorded net income of $778 million on sales of $34.37 billion.
“Two years ago, I told our team members, ‘The turnaround is over; it’s time to turn it on.’ They did and the proof is in our second year in a row of record sales and earnings,” said Donnie Smith, president and CEO of Tyson Foods.
“This is an exciting time as we integrate Hillshire Brands and Tyson Foods,” Smith said, “and I believe that when we look back on this merger years from now, we’ll see it as a watershed event. We’re setting higher expectations and anticipating more growth and increased profitability, specifically in the Chicken and Prepared Foods segments. In the long-term, our Chicken segment should generate a 7-9% return on sales, although we expect fiscal 2015 to be particularly strong with a return of more than 10%.”
Smith said Tyson Foods has identified its “synergy targets” and was working to bring those savings to the company’s bottom line. He said he was “very confident” that the company would see savings from the merger of $225 million in the next fiscal year and more than $500 million by the following year.
“Fiscal 2015 should be another great year and is already off to a strong start. We are projecting adjusted earnings for the year in the range of $3.30-3.40 per share, and as we look ahead to 2016, we see continued success and growth.”
Shares of Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) closed trading Friday at $40.66. The company’s stock has traded between $29.03 and $44.24 per share during the past 52 weeks.
