By Savyata Mishra
(Reuters) -Mondelez International hiked its annual sales and profit growth forecasts for the third time this year on Wednesday, betting on consumers to continue snacking on the Oreo maker's chocolates and baked snacks despite price increases.
Shares of the Chicago-based snack maker rose 2% in after-hours trading as it also beat quarterly net revenue estimates.
The Toblerone maker, similar to packaged food peer Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC), has seen a boost to its margins this year from price increases that helped offset higher costs for cocoa and sugar as well as transportation.
In the reported quarter, Mondelez (NASDAQ:MDLZ) raised prices by nearly 12 percentage points (pp) but still saw volumes rise 3.8 pp, signaling resilience in its core chocolate, biscuit and baked snacks categories where consumers have not resisted higher prices.
"We are constructive on volumes as it relates to the remainder of this year and into the next year," said CEO Dirk Van de Put on a post-earnings call, adding that consumer confidence was holding in U.S. and Canada.
The company expects momentum to recover in Europe as it was able to negotiate prices with consumers, after it faced some push back on hikes earlier this year.
Mondelez now projects organic net revenue for the full year to grow 14% to 15%, hiking it from a prior expectation of a more than 12% growth.
It also raised its adjusted profit forecast, and expects it to grow 16% on a constant currency basis from an earlier view of a 12% rise.
Quarterly net revenue rose to $9.03 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, beating analysts' average estimate of $8.83 billion, according to LSEG data.