(AP) — Shares of Hormel, the company behind Spam canned ham, Dinty Moore stew and other products, wavered Wednesday after the company said its quarterly profit grew, but reported disappointing sales that were hurt by the avian flu epidemic and the strong U.S. dollar.
Hormel Foods Corp. reported a bigger-than-expected profit in its third quarter and raised its forecast for the full year, but its revenue fell about $500 million short of Wall Street expectations.
Sales and profits at the company's Jennie-O Turkey store business fell because of the bird flu epidemic, which led to the deaths of tens of millions of chickens and turkeys across the Midwest this year.
Hormel said its total sales volume rose 3 percent from a year ago on greater sales of products like Hormel chili and Skippy peanut butter.
[...] revenue for Jennie-O shrank and the business' profit dropped by 45 percent in the wake of the avian flu outbreak.
