Conagra Brands Inc. stock slipped 1.2% in Thursday premarket trading after the food company reported sales that missed expectations and gave profit guidance below Street expectations. Conagra posted net income of $158.9 million, or 33 cents per share, down from $309.5 million, or 64 cents per share, last year. Adjusted EPS of 65 cents beat the FactSet consensus for 63 cents. Sales of $2.910 billion were up from $2.740 billion and just below the FactSet consensus for $2.929 billion. Gross margin fell to 183 basis points to 24.5%. Chief Executive Sean Connolly said in a statement he was pleased to see margin improvement in the grocery & snacks and foodservice segments. “his represents an important inflection that we expect will extend to our Refrigerated & Frozen and International businesses as fiscal 2023 progresses,” he said. For fiscal 2023, Conagra is guiding for organic sales growth of 4% to 5% and adjusted EPS growth of 1% to 5%. The FactSet consensus is for sales of $11.921 billion, implying 3.2% growth. The FactSet consensus for EPS is $2.53, suggesting 7.8% growth. Conagra stock is up 4.7% for the year to date while the broader S&P 500 index is down 20.2%.
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