Investing.com -- Shares in Cal-Maine Foods Inc (O:CALM) tumbled more than 4% in after-hours trading after the Southern egg company failed to meet analysts' expectation with its earnings and sales during its second quarter of Fiscal Year 2016.
Cal-Maine, a Mississippi-based fresh egg producer, saw its shares decline after Wednesday's regular session in spite of relatively strong results over its last quarter. For the three-month period ending in late-October, Cal-Maine sold more than 264 million eggs, as customers staged a mass exodus from several main rivals amid a widespread avian flu outbreak, which affected large portions of farms throughout the Midwest. The resulting supply cuts sent egg prices soaring more than 40% per cartons of a dozen earlier this fall.
Cal-Maine reaped the benefits, as prices for its shell eggs jumped nearly 43% for the quarter, while its overall sales surged by 44.2% to $546 million for the period. At the same time, the Jackson, Mississippi egg producer incurred increased expenses related to stricter monitoring of its chicken to ensure that its flock had not been affected with the infectious strain.
“Our industry continues to deal with the significant reduction in the national laying hen flock that occurred this past spring related to the Avian Influenza (AI) outbreaks in the upper Midwestern United States. While the supply is gradually starting to move back up, the current national laying hen flock reported by the USDA yesterday is still approximately 9% lower than it was a year ago," Cal-Maine CEO Dolph Baker said in a statement. "Egg prices have moved lower than expected in spite of the reduced supply, and we expect prices will remain volatile until the industry has more clarity on future supply levels."
“While there have been no further reported U.S. outbreaks of highly pathogenic AI, we continue to closely monitor the situation, and we are working with egg industry associations and government officials to identify ways to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks. There have been no positive tests for AI at any of the Cal-Maine Foods locations; however, we have strengthened our biosecurity measures at all of our facilities," Baker added.
Cal-Maine reported net earnings of $109.2 million or 2.26 per share, more than triple its earnings of $36.6 million or 0.76 per share over the same quarter in 2014. Still, the company fell short of analysts' expectations of $552.3 million in revenues on per share earnings of 2.40.
Cal-Maine's Board of Directors also authorized a dividend of 0.751 per share to Class A common stockholders of record on January 27. The dividend will be payable on Feb. 11.
Shares in Cal-Maine fell 2.25 or 4.54% in after-hours trading to 47.34.