Shares of food maker ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) have been soaring in early trading more than 9% after reporting this morning a surge of 60% in its third quarter profit.
The company said its quarterly profit climbed to $309 million, or 63 cents per share due to higher prices and demand for its products. These numbers are up from $193 million, or 38 cents per share reported in the same period a year ago when the company's earnings numbers were dragged down by recall costs. Analysts, on average, expected quarterly earnings of 39 cents per share.
ConAgra's quarterly revenue grew to $3.53 billion, up from $2.9 billion a year ago. Revenue during the period was helped by strong gains from the company's food and ingredients segment which offset soaring commodity costs. Analysts expected the company show sales of $3.17 billion in the third quarter, according to Thomson Financial.
ConAgra also announced it would sell the trading and merchandising business to the Ospraie Special Opportunities fund for $2.1 billion. This move is designed to help the company to focus on its core consumer foods business and to repurchase ConAgra shares.
Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
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