(Reuters) -General Mills Inc on Thursday raised its fiscal 2023 forecasts for a fourth time after beating estimates for quarterly results, helped by price increases and steady demand for its packaged-food products.
Multinational packaged food companies have been bumping up their product prices to shield their profit margins from spiraling costs and have faced low resistance as Americans cut down on dining out amid growing fears of a recession.
General Mills’ organic sales in the third quarter rose 16%, helped mainly by higher prices, while volumes remained flat.
Shares of the Cheerios cereal maker rose about 2% in premarket trade.
General Mills had most recently lifted its annual organic sales and profit expectations in February.
The company said on Thursday it now expects organic net sales to rise 10% to 11% in fiscal 2023, compared to its earlier forecast of about 10% growth.
It forecast fiscal 2023 adjusted profit per share to rise between 8% and 9% on a constant-currency basis, compared with its prior range of a 7% to 8% rise.
The company’s net sales in the third quarter ending Feb. 26 rose 13% to about $5.13 billion, while analysts had expected $4.97 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
Excluding one-off charges, General Mills earned 97 cents per share, compared with estimates of 93 cents.
(Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
