Sysco Q2 Profit Declines - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Food-distribution giant Sysco Corp. (SYY) reported that its second-quarter net earnings declined to $210.84 million or $0.36 per share, from $221.37 million or $0.38 per share in the same quarter last year.

After adjusting for certain items, which mainly related to an increase in the estimate of Sysco's self-insurance reserve, adjusted earnings per share was $0.40, unchanged from the prior year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.40 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

After further adjusting for business transformation expenses, to reflect the performance of the company's underlying business, adjusted earnings per share was $0.47, a decrease of 4.1% from $0.49 last year. Sales for the quarter were $11.24 billion, an increase of about 4.1% from $10.80 billion in the same quarter last year. Ten analysts had consensus revenue estimate of $11.35 billion for the quarter.

Food cost inflation was 0.8%, as measured by the estimated change in Sysco's product costs, driven mainly by inflation in the meat and seafood categories. In addition, sales from acquisitions (within the last 12 months) increased sales by 1.9%, and the impact of changes in foreign exchange rates for the second quarter decreased sales by 0.6%.