Tyson Foods Inc. reported second quarter 2011 earnings per share (EPS) was $0.42, as compared to $0.42 last year.
Second quarter 2011 Sales were $8.0 billion, up 15.7 percent compared to last year.
Overall Operating Margin was 3.8 percent.
Chicken operating income $37 million, or 1.4 percent of sales.
Beef operating income $94 million, or 2.8 percent of sales.
Pork operating income $146 million, or 10.5 percent of sales.
Prepared Foods operating income $31 million, or 4.0 percent of sales.
Net interest expense is projected to be $100 million lower in fiscal 2011 versus fiscal 2010 due to bond buybacks, recent rating upgrades and the amendment of our revolving credit facility
"Overall, it was a solid quarter, and I'm pleased with the results," said Donnie Smith, Tyson Foods' president and chief operating officer in a prepared statement. "We produced record sales for the second quarter on substantially higher sales prices in addition to increased volume. All segments except chicken were within or above their normalized operating margin ranges. While chicken was well below its normalized range, it was profitable, and we believe it will continue to be profitable in the third and fourth quarters. Our beef segment remains solid, and our pork segment continues to produce outstanding returns. Prepared foods is moving in the right direction, and we've got more work to do in this segment.
"Most exciting to me is that we still have a significant amount of opportunity to increase profitability throughout Tyson Foods. We will continue to face challenging and volatile market conditions in fiscal 2011, but we maintain our belief that earnings should be comparable to 2010 due to our on-going operational improvements and focus on execution," Smith said.
