No Magic Beans for Heinz as Net Falls 22%

It was revealed on Thursday that H.J. Heinz

saw fiscal fourth quarter earnings drop 22%. This can be largely put down to recent costs for productivity initiatives. However, sales did not grow as fast as the company was hoping, and margins shrank. The 4Q profit dropped $175.3 million, or 54 cents per share, which is a significant drop from $223.9 million, or 69 cents per share, the previous year. The only slightly bright spot was that sales went up to $3.05 billion from $2.89 billion. It is probably the increase in sales that has resulted in HNZ raising the annualized common stock dividend by 14 cents to $2.06 per share, which is an increase of 7.3%. Heinz's brands include Bagel Bites, Boston Market, HP Sauce, and Complan, and it is famous around the world for products like ketchup and baked beans. The period ending April 29 saw revenue rise 6% to $3.05 billion from $2.89 billion, still missing Wall Street's estimate of $3.07 billion. As a result of that miss, Heinz's stock dropped 86 cents to $53 in premarket trading on Thursday.