12:30 PM EST, 11/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Freshpet ( FRPT ) lifted its full-year sales and core profit outlooks on Monday as the pet food company swung to higher-than-expected third-quarter earnings, buoyed by double-digit volume growth.

Sales are now set be about $975 million for 2024, up from the company's previous guidance of at least $965 million. The current consensus on Capital IQ is for revenue of $970.5 million. The stock advanced 11% in midday trading.

During an earnings conference call, Chief Financial Officer Todd Cunfer attributed the upgraded revenue outlook to "significant improvements in our operating efficiency and the strong start-up of the new roll line in Ennis, (Texas)" according to a Capital IQ transcript. "Collectively, these efforts will allow us to sell a bit more this year than we had originally projected and still maintained strong customer service."

Freshpet ( FRPT ) raised its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization forecast to at least $155 million for the current year from at least $140 million. Capital expenditures are pegged at about $180 million versus the previous outlook of roughly $200 million.

"We are updating our outlook to reflect our outperformance in the third quarter as well as our conviction in our ability to execute in the final quarter of the year," Cunfer told analysts.

For the September quarter, the company reported net income of $0.24 a share, compared with a loss of $0.15 the year before, topping the Street's view for GAAP EPS of $0.11. Sales jumped to $253.4 million from $200.6 million, driven by volume gains of 26%. Analysts' estimate was for $248.3 million in revenue.

"We delivered our 25th consecutive quarter of (greater than) 25% year on year net sales growth and matched that with a very strong operating performance," Chief Executive Billy Cyr said in a statement. "This further strengthens our confidence in our ability to meet or exceed our 2027 goals."

Adjusted EBITDA came in at $43.5 million, up from $23.2 million last year.

"This improvement was primarily driven by higher gross margin as well as improved logistics costs, partially offset by higher media investment and incentive (comparison)," Cunfer said on the call.

Price: 149.29, Change: +15.60, Percent Change: +11.67