Release Details

GREELEY, Colo., Feb. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (NASDAQ: PPC) reports fourth quarter and year-end 2019 financial results.

2019 Highlights

• Operating Income margins of 6.4% in U.S., 8.9% in Mexico and 3.3% in Europe operations, respectively.
  
• Net Income of $455.9 million, or an 84% increase from last year.
• Adjusted EBITDA of $973.8 million, a 22% increase over 2018, or an 8.5% margin.
  
• Portfolio strategy and geographic diversification reducing the impact of challenging specific market conditions. EBITDA outpacing the industry competition, driven by improved execution and increased operating performance across all business units, including the U.S., Mexico and Europe.
  
• Operating results from legacy European business rose by 7% on better operational efficiencies and input cost mitigation. Newly acquired operations already generating positive EBITDA, and on track to achieve performance competitive with leading companies with similar portfolio in next few years.
  
• We remain motivated to pursue additional growth potential and product differentiation, aligning our strategic priorities to continue to strengthen our differentiated global platforms.

Fourth Quarter

• Net Sales of $3.06 billion.
  
• Net GAAP Income of $92.1 million, including one-time asset acquisition net gain due to valuation and acquisition adjustments.
  
• Operating Income margins of 3.2% in U.S., 2.5% in Mexico and 2.1% in Europe operations, respectively.
  
• Adjusted EBITDA of $161.6 million (or a 5.3% margin).

(1) Reconciliations for non-U.S. GAAP measures are provided in subsequent sections within this release.
(2) Comparisons include Tulip from 10/15/19 forward.

“While overall global market conditions including U.S. commodity chicken improved during 2019, our team members have continued to deliver on our strategy, achieving a significant increase in relative performance compared to last year and to our industry competition. Our diverse global footprint has contributed to well-balanced and more consistent results against different specific market conditions. We maintain our approach to the successful Key Customer strategy, which is the basis for our strong growth. While our product portfolio is already differentiated, we are investing to further innovate, and increase our capacities and capabilities to meet customer demand. We expect value added, specialty products to account for a meaningfully larger portion of our total results over the next few years as we continue to de-emphasize the mix of more volatile commodity sales and strengthen our margin profile,” stated Jayson Penn, Chief Executive Officer of Pilgrim's.

“In Q4, our operating performance in the U.S. has continued to improve, driven by our partnership with Key customers and the relentless focus on executing and delivering the best results possible despite changes in market conditions. Within our case-ready and small bird businesses, strong demand, especially from QSR customers, has continued to outstrip supply. The commodity sector has continued to be challenging but we experienced improved market conditions compared to 2018. Our U.S. Prepared Foods continues to evolve, reflecting the investments made over the last few years.”

“Weak macro conditions during Q4 in Mexico contributed to uncertainties in consumer spending and demand, especially in traditional markets. Although volume growth was solid, prices were below seasonal expectations. Despite the difficult market environment in Q4, our Mexican business has continued to perform well operationally versus the industry, and was able to generate an improvement in results during fiscal 2019 compared to 2018.”

“Our legacy European operations once again produced continuing improvement in results driven by increased operational efficiencies, investments in automation, focus on higher yields, and better mitigation of input costs. Joining our global team during the quarter, the newly acquired operations are off to a strong start and already generating positive EBITDA. The solid performance was driven by strong pork exports and good domestic demand, as well as from the initial implementations of operational improvements.”

Conference Call Information

A conference call to discuss Pilgrim’s quarterly results will be held tomorrow, February 21, at 7:00 a.m. MT (9 a.m. ET).  Participants are encouraged to pre-register for the conference call using the link below.  Callers who pre-register will be given a unique PIN to gain immediate access to the call and bypass the live operator.  Participants may pre-register at any time, including up to and after the call start time.

To pre-register, go to: https://services.choruscall.com/links/ppc200221.html

You may also reach the pre-registration link by logging in through the investor section of our website at www.pilgrims.com and clicking on the link under “Upcoming Events.”

For those who would like to join the call but have not pre-registered, access is available by dialing +1 (844) 883-3889 within the US, or +1 (412) 317-9245 internationally, and requesting the “Pilgrim’s Pride Conference.” Please note that to submit a question to management during the call, you must be logged in via telephone.

Replays of the conference call will be available on Pilgrim’s website approximately two hours after the call concludes and can be accessed through the “Investor” section of www.pilgrims.com. The webcast will be available for replay through May 21, 2020.

About Pilgrim’s Pride

Pilgrim’s employs approximately 58,500 people and operates protein processing plants and prepared-foods facilities in 14 states, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the U.K, and continental Europe. The Company’s primary distribution is through retailers and foodservice distributors. For more information, please visit www.pilgrims.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this press release that state the intentions, plans, hopes, beliefs, anticipations, expectations or predictions of the future of Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation and its management are considered forward-looking statements. It is important to note that actual results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements include: matters affecting the poultry industry generally; the ability to execute the Company’s business plan to achieve desired cost savings and profitability; future pricing for feed ingredients and the Company’s products; outbreaks of avian influenza or other diseases, either in Pilgrim’s Pride’s flocks or elsewhere, affecting its ability to conduct its operations and/or demand for its poultry products; contamination of Pilgrim’s Pride’s products, which has previously and can in the future lead to product liability claims and product recalls; exposure to risks related to product liability, product recalls, property damage and injuries to persons, for which insurance coverage is expensive, limited and potentially inadequate; management of cash resources; restrictions imposed by, and as a result of, Pilgrim’s Pride’s leverage; changes in laws or regulations affecting Pilgrim’s Pride’s operations or the application thereof; new immigration legislation or increased enforcement efforts in connection with existing immigration legislation that cause the costs of doing business to increase, cause Pilgrim’s Pride to change the way in which it does business, or otherwise disrupt its operations; competitive factors and pricing pressures or the loss of one or more of Pilgrim’s Pride’s largest customers; currency exchange rate fluctuations, trade barriers, exchange controls, expropriation and other risks associated with foreign operations; disruptions in international markets and distribution channel, including anti-dumping proceedings and countervailing duty proceedings; and the impact of uncertainties of litigation as well as other risks described under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

PILGRIM’S PRIDE CORPORATION
Selected Financial Information
(Unaudited)

“EBITDA” is defined as the sum of net income (loss) plus interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. “Adjusted EBITDA” is calculated by adding to EBITDA certain items of expense and deducting from EBITDA certain items of income that we believe are not indicative of our ongoing operating performance consisting of: (1) income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests, (2) charges or income from restructuring activities, (3) reorganization items, (4) losses on early extinguishment of debt and (5) foreign currency transaction losses (gains). EBITDA is presented because it is used by management and we believe it is frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties, in addition to and not in lieu of results prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. (“U.S. GAAP”), to compare the performance of companies.  We believe investors would be interested in our Adjusted EBITDA because this is how our management analyzes EBITDA. The Company also believes that Adjusted EBITDA, in combination with the Company’s financial results calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP, provides investors with additional perspective regarding the impact of certain significant items on EBITDA and facilitates a more direct comparison of its performance with its competitors.  EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measurements of financial performance under U.S. GAAP.  They should not be considered as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities or as a measure of liquidity or an alternative to net income as indicators of our operating performance or any other measures of performance derived in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

The summary unaudited consolidated income statement data for the twelve months ended December 29, 2019 (the LTM Period) have been calculated by summing each of the unaudited thirteen week periods within the audited fifty-two week period ended December 29, 2019.

A reconciliation of net income (loss) attributable to Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (“Pilgrim's”) per common diluted share to adjusted net income (loss) attributable to Pilgrim's per common diluted share is as follows:

A reconciliation of U.S. GAAP to non-U.S. GAAP financial measures. Net income (loss) per share is calculated by dividing the net income (loss) attributable to Pilgrim's Pride Corporation stockholders by the weighted average number of diluted shares.

Source: Pilgrim's Pride Corporation