Kellogg Q4 Profit Beats Estimates, Organic Growth In Net Sales At 16.2%; Issues FY23 Guidance

Kellogg Company (K) reported that its fourth quarter adjusted operating profit increased by 16%, and by 20% excluding currency, from prior year. On an organic basis, net sales increased by 16% year on year. For 2023, the company expects strong currency-neutral growth in net sales and adjusted-basis operating profit.

Fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share was $0.94 compared to $0.83, prior year. Currency-neutral adjusted earnings per share was $0.97 compared to $0.83.

On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of $0.84, for the quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

Net loss to Kellogg was $98 million compared to profit of $433 million, last year. Reported loss per share was $0.29 compared to profit of $1.26.

Reported net sales were $3.83 billion, up 12.0% from last year. Organic growth in net sales was 16.2%, for the quarter. Analysts on average had estimated $3.66 billion in revenue.

For 2023, the company expects: organic net sales growth of 5-7%, adjusted operating profit growth of 7-9% on a currency-neutral basis, and adjusted earnings per share decline of 2-4% on a currency-neutral basis.

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Globus Medical Stock Slips 15% On Merger Deal With NuVasive

Shares of Globus Medical, Inc. (GMED) are slipping nearly 15% on Thursday morning after the company announced an all-stock deal to merger with NuVasive (NUVA).

GMED is currently trading at $65.52, down $11.44 or 14.86%, on the Nasdaq, on a volume of 2 million shares, above average volume of 0.5 million. The stock opened its trading at $77.50 after closing previous day’s trading at $76.96. The stock has traded between $52.60 and $81.78 in the past 52-week period.

Globus Medical, a musculoskeletal solutions company, and NuVasive providing spine technology innovation, entered into a definitive agreement to combine in an all-stock transaction.

NuVasive shareholders would receive 0.75 of a share of Globus Medical Class A common stock for each share of NuVasive common stock owned at the closing of the transaction. Based on this exchange ratio, the implied share price for NuVasive would be $57.72, an equity value of $3.1 billion, based on Globus Medical’s closing share price on February 8.

The transaction is expected to close in the middle of 2023. Following the close of the transaction, NuVasive shareholders would own approximately 28% of the combined company, and Globus Medical shareholders would own approximately 72%.

Baxter International Slips 11% On Quarterly Results

Shares of Baxter International Inc. (BAX) are slipping over 11% on Thursday morning after reporting fourth-quarter results.

BAX is currently trading at $40.31, down $5.37 or 11.76%, on the NYSE, on a volume of 9.5 million, above average volume of 5.5 million. The stock opened its trading at $41.43 after closing Wednesday’s trading at $45.68. The stock has traded between $38.58 and $89.24 in the past 52-week period.

Sales for the fourth quarter gained 11% to $3.89 billion from $3.51 billion last year.

Net income for the quarter slipped to $181 million or $0.36 per share from $238 million or $0.47 per share last year. Adjusted earnings were $0.88, down from $1.03 per share last year.

Analysts expected earnings of $0.94 per share and revenues of $3.77 billion.

International Flavors & Fragrances Declines 17% On Reduced Q4 Profit

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF) shares are sliding more than 17 percent on Thursday morning trade after the company reported a fall in fourth-quarter profit compared to the prior year.

The quarterly earnings were $3 million or $0.01 per share, compared to $90 million or $0.35 per share in the previous year.

Net sales were $2.85 billion, down 6 percent from $3.03 billion a year ago.

Looking ahead to the full year 2023, the company expects sales to be approximately $12.5 billion.

Currently, shares are at $95.06, down 15.46 percent from the previous close of $112.44 on a volume of 4,692,348.

20 Wines Under $20: Finding Bargains Amid Inflation

The familiar names have risen in price, but great, unexplored values still abound.

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Twitter Users Face Outage, Told They're 'Over Daily Limit'

Twitter users in the U.S. and Canada were unable to send tweets on Wednesday and received an error message saying that they were “over the daily limit for sending tweets.”

“Twitter may not be working as expected for some of you. Sorry for the trouble. We’re aware and working to get this fixed,” the social media company tweeted.

About 30 minutes later, users were able to send tweets again but were still unable to send direct messages and follow other users.

A daily limit of 2,400 tweets per day was placed by the Elon Musk-owned platform to lower traffic on its operations, according to reports.

Musk had cut Twitter’s workforce over the last few months since he acquired the platform last October for $44 billion. Tech experts have been warning that such massive job cuts could cause technical issues with the platform. However, it is not clear whether Wednesday’s outage was due to reduced headcount.

Twitter has also announced that users of its $8 a month subscription service in the US can now post longer tweets. Twitter Blue subscribers can now post up to 4,000 characters, far more than the 280-character limit imposed on non-paying users.