Specialty eggs, prepared foods now make up majority of Cal-Maine sales
Cal-Maine Foods swung to a fiscal first-quarter loss of $58.6 million as net sales fell 42% to $539.6 million. Both the per-share loss and the sales figure missed Wall Street expectations.
The company posted a loss of $1.26 a share for the quarter ended Aug. 29, compared with a profit of $199.3 million in the comparable period a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet had projected a 77-cent per-share loss, while sales were expected to reach $561.6 million.
Chief Executive Sherman Miller said egg pricing remains under pressure from an industry-wide supply imbalance, even as underlying demand stays healthy. “Looking ahead, there are two important timing dynamics: when the conventional shell egg market begins to rebalance and when our investments in prepared foods translate into greater earnings contribution,” Miller said.
Cal-Maine shares fell 6.6% to $64 in premarket trading on Wednesday.
Net sales declined across Cal-Maine’s three product lines. Conventional egg sales fell 60%, hurt by lower selling prices even as sales volumes were roughly flat. Specialty egg sales — which include free-range, pasture-raised and other premium varieties — fell 14% on both lower prices and lower volumes. Prepared foods sales declined 13%.
Specialty eggs and prepared foods together accounted for more than half of Cal-Maine’s net sales during the recent quarter, which Miller said underscores the progress the company has made in broadening its business beyond conventional eggs.
Miller acknowledged the company cannot predict when the conventional shell egg market will rebalance. Cal-Maine plans to expand its prepared-foods capacity by more than 60% through the first half of fiscal 2028, with Miller saying the move positions the company to invest through the cycle and build a more diversified and durable earnings profile.