030130 Pilgrim's Pride's 1Q Profits PlungeJanuary 16, 2003Pittsburg, TX - Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the country's second-largest poultry producer, saw fiscal first- quarter net income plunge 79% and sales dip 4.4% following the largest meat recall in U.S. history. Rising feed costs and lower prices for dark-meat chicken also hurt the company's bottom line. After the market closed Tuesday, Pilgrim's Pride reported net income of $2.8 million, or 7 cents a share, for the quarter ended Dec. 28, compared with net income of $13 million, or 32 cents a share, a year earlier. The latest results include a gain of 22 cents per share, net of tax, from the federal government's avian- influenza relief plan for turkey producers, as well as a 2 cent per-share gain from a vitamin-lawsuit settlement. The company had filed the suit. One analyst surveyed by Thomson First Call had expected a loss, excluding items, of 17 cents a share. Sales fell to $627.4 million from $656 million a year earlier. In October, a strain of listeria bacteria that caused at least seven deaths was linked to the company's Wampler Foods turkey-processing plant in Franconia, Pa., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pilgrim's Pride halted production at the plant and recalled 27 million pounds of fresh, frozen and deli chicken and turkey meat in the largest meat recall in U.S. history. The recall hurt the company's net sales by about $30 million during the latest quarter, it said. Shares of Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim's Pride closed Wednesday at $5.50, down 5 cents, or 0.9%, on the New York Stock Exchange.
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