UPDATE: ConAgra Foods Posts In-Line Q2 Earnings

reported in-line earnings for the second quarter and reaffirmed its earnings forecast for the year. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company posted quarterly earnings of $10 million, or $0.02 per share, compared to $248.7 million, or $0.59 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding certain items, the company's earnings from continuing operations slipped to $0.61 per share from $0.62 per share. Its net sales declined 1.7% $4.15 billion in the quarter. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.61 per share on revenue of $4.2 billion. Sales in its consumer-foods division dropped 2% to $2 billion, while sales in its commercial-foods segment rose 2% to $1.1 billion. Sales for the private brands segment declined 5% to $1.1 billion. Gary Rodkin, ConAgra Foods' chief executive officer, said, “We are pleased that the fundamentals in our Consumer Foods and Commercial Foods segments are improving. Key retail brands are strengthening, Lamb Weston is gaining domestic share and benefitting from a better quality potato crop, and we are generating COGS and SG&A efficiencies across our operations. EPS came in as planned this quarter; despite challenges in one of our segments, we have reaffirmed our full-year EPS guidance because we expect two of our segments to continue to deliver good performance, and for our whole organization to continue generating strong productivity and efficiencies.” ConAgra shares rose 0.05% to $37.12 in pre-market trading.