Strong Demand To Propel Hain Celestial's Q1 Results

(RTTNews) - Organic and natural foods company Hain Celestial Group Inc. (HAIN) is on the earnings deck for its first-quarter numbers this Thursday, November 5, with analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimating earnings of $0.37 per share on revenue of $703.55 million.

The company expects first quarter earnings to be up slightly to the prior year. In the previous year, Hain Celestial reported first-quarter net income of $18.9 million or $0.37 per share; adjusted net income of $34.7 million or $0.68 per share; net sales of $631.3 million; and, adjusted net sales of $642.6 million, a 35% increase, as adjusted for the nut butter voluntary recall.

For fiscal 2016, the company expects net sales in the range of $2.97 billion - $3.11 billion, and earnings of $2.11 - $2.26 per share. Analysts now expect earnings of $2.18 per share on revenue of $3.02 billion for fiscal 2016.

Hain Celestial expects high single digit organic growth in fiscal 2016 with two thirds of the growth of its net sales coming from existing portfolio and one third of the growth coming from acquisitions that it made in fiscal 2015 and the beginning of 2016.

With the company's $3.5 billion targeting insight for 2018, it anticipates $5 billion in 2020 with continued internal growth and acquisitions.

The company is likely to benefit from the strong lineup of innovation coupled with the resurgent MaraNatha brand, and new distribution wins in a full queue of new productive initiatives. The company believes that it is well-positioned as the consumption of branded organic and natural, better-for-you products continues to rise and its distribution footprint further evolves on a global basis in both new and existing markets across its broad network of sales channels.

In the last quarter, the company reported record net sales and earnings growth, fueled by strong worldwide demand for its diverse portfolio of leading organic and natural brands across many product categories, sales channels and geographies. The fourth quarter represented Hain's 20th consecutive quarter of double digit net sales growth.

Income from continuing operations for the fourth quarter was $71.1 million, a 99% increase from the prior year fourth quarter. Earnings per share was $0.68 versus $0.35 last year.

Adjusted income from continuing operations was $57.2 million or $0.55 per share, for the quarter. On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.55 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude certain special items.

Net sales were $698.1 million, a 20% increase over the prior year period. Analysts expected revenue of $694.72 million for the quarter.