Dean Foods Q3 Adj. Profit Tops View; Sees Q4 Adj. EPS In Line

(RTTNews) - Dean Foods Co. (DF) reported a profit for the third-quarter that declined 28 percent from the prior year. Quarterly adjusted earnings topped analysts' expectations, while net sales matched their estimates.

The company expect adjusted earnings of between $0.37 and $0.45 per share for the fourth-quarter. Analysts project fourth-quarter earnings of $0.37 per share. The company expects the fourth quarter to be eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year adjusted operating income improvement.

Net income for the third-quarter declined 28 percent to $14.53 million from the previous year's $20.23 million, with earnings per share decreasing to $0.16 from $0.22 last year.

But, adjusted net income for the third-quarter increased to $0.37 from $0.30 in the prior year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.36 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net sales for the quarter declined to $1.96 billion from $2.03 billion in the prior year. Wall Street expected revenues of $1.96 billion.

Total volume across all products was 651 million gallons for the third quarter 2016, a 1.0% decline compared to total volume of 658 million gallons in the third quarter 2015. For the fourth quarter 2016, the Company expects continued improvement in total volume performance.

Based on fluid milk sales data published by the USDA through August, fluid milk volumes decreased 0.9% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2016 on an unadjusted basis. On this same basis, Dean Foods' share of U.S. fluid milk volumes increased by 60 basis points sequentially to 35.1% for the quarter-to-date through August.