What Happened:Shares of specialty food company Lancaster Colony (NASDAQ:LANC) jumped 14.3% in the afternoon session after the company reported second-quarter earnings results that beat on the gross and operating margin lines, leading to a nice EPS beat. On the other hand, its revenue unfortunately missed analysts' expectations. The retail segment grew 2.0% due to volume gains, with management guiding for the segment to continue to benefit from "our expanding licensing program." In the food service segment, the company expects "sustained volume growth from select quick-service restaurant customers." though it expects headwinds due to deflationary pricing. Overall, the results were mixed, though profitability metrics improved significantly in the quarter.
Is now the time to buy Lancaster Colony? Find out by reading the original article on StockStory.
What is the market telling us:Lancaster Colony's shares are not very volatile than the market average and over the last year have had only 2 moves greater than 5%. Moves this big are very rare for Lancaster Colony and that is indicating to us that this news had a significant impact on the market's perception of the business.
Lancaster Colony is up 23.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $204.53 per share it is trading close to its 52-week high of $218.84 from May 2023. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Lancaster Colony's shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,306.
