Market Currents

• Tuesday, December 8, 2009

• 06:56 AM Sanderson Farms (SAFM): FQ4 EPS of $0.96 beats by $0.03. Revenue of $469M (+1.9%) vs. $451M. "Current market conditions reflect ongoing weakness in consumer spending and slow restaurant traffic. While retail grocery trends remain favorable, meaningful improvement in demand for chicken from food service customers will not likely occur until the national employment situation improves and consumers start dining out again." (PR) 1 Comment
• 00:05 AM Notable pre-market earnings: AZO, BF.B, HRB, KR, MTN, SAFM, TLB Comment!

• Wednesday, November 11, 2009

• 09:51 AM JPMorgan drops Tyson Foods (TSN) to Neutral, saying any upside is already priced in to shares. Firm also notes recent increases in corn and hog prices and "a pending increase in supply from competitor Sanderson Farms (SAFM)." Shares -1.2%. Comment!

• Thursday, May 28, 2009

• 11:15 AM Sanderson Farms (SAFM) easily beat consensus as cheaper feed drove healthier margins. Q1 EPS of $1.27 vs. consensus of $0.55. Revenue of $427M (-1.6%) vs. $409M consensus. Gross margin surged to 13.1% from 5.7%. (WSJ) Comment!

• Wednesday, November 19, 2008

• 09:56 AM Chicken prices are bottoming, JPMorgan notes. With investors propping up share prices and the risk of debt default diminishing, now may be the time to buy chicken processor Sanderson Farms (SAFM +11.6%), whose shares it upgrades. Comment!

• Monday, November 10, 2008

• 12:51 PM In an attempt to show banks it's not desperate to borrow, Pilgrim's Pride (PPC +17%) is quietly trying to boost liquidity by pursuing non-core asset sales. Sanderson Farms (SAFM) may bid on some of its plants. Comment!

• Thursday, October 9, 2008

• 15:35 PM Shares of Pilgrim's Pride (PPC) rose more than 30% on speculation Sanderson Farms (SAFM) has an eye on its bigger rival, after a Barclays analyst said Sanderson's strong balance sheet makes it a candidate to buy PPC's depressed assets. Sanderson denies. PPC +5.75%. Comment!

• Thursday, September 25, 2008

• 09:07 AM Premarket losers: NMR -9%. SFD -8%. SAFM -7%. COF -7%. TSN -7%. GE -4%. JCP -4%. DRYS -3%. CHL -3%. Comment!

• Wednesday, September 24, 2008

• 14:55 PM Shares of meat companies, led by Pilgrim's Pride (PPC -31%), are being hammered amid worries the capital-intensive firms will suffer worse than others from the credit crunch. SFD -10%. SAFM -8%. TSN -6%. Comment!

• Monday, June 16, 2008

• 15:54 PM Food companies were slammed today after Chiquita (CQB) predicted a significant Q3 loss on higher fuel and fertilizer costs. CQB -29.1%. FDP -13.7%. PPC -10.1%. SFD -4.35%. SAFM -4.7%. TSN -1.1%. Comment!