McCormick & Company, Incorporated (MKC) shares are flat at $73.20 in pre-market trading Tuesday after the company reported its first quarter 2015 earnings results.
The spices and seasonings company recorded earnings of $0.70 per share on revenues of $1.01 billion, up 1.7% from a year ago. Analysts were expecting EPS of $0.64 on revenues of $986.5 million. McCormick said first quarter sales rose 2% from the year-ago period and in constant currency, the increase was 6%.
Alan D. Wilson, Chairman and CEO, commented, “Our first quarter results demonstrated progress with our sales growth strategies, and our profit result has us off to a strong start in 2015..”
For full year 2015, MKC provided EPS guidance of $3.44-$3.51 versus consensus of $3.53 per share. The company also issued revenue projection of $4.20-$4.29 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $4.27 billion.
On valuation measures, McCormick & Co. Inc. shares, which currently have an average 3-month trading volume of 517K shares, trade at a trailing-12 P/E of 21.92, a forward P/E of 19.21 and a P/E to growth ratio of 2.84. The median Wall Street price target on the name is $72.00 with a high target of $81.00. Currently ticker has no ‘Buy’ endorsements, compared to 10 ’Holds’ and 1 ‘Sell’.
Profitability-wise, MKC has a t-12 profit and operating margin of 10.32% and 14.33%, respectively. The $9.39 billion market cap company reported $81.8 million in cash vs. $806.8 million in debt in its most recent quarter.
MKC currently prints a one year return of about 11% and a year-to-date loss of around 1.50%.
McCormick & Co. Inc. is a manufacturer and distributor of spices, seasoning mixes, and other flavorful products to the food industry worldwide. The company was founded in 1889 and is based in Sparks, Maryland.
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