10:24 AM EST, 02/12/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Kraft Heinz ( KHC ) offered a downbeat full-year earnings outlook on Wednesday as the food and beverage company's fourth-quarter revenue fell more than Wall Street's expectations.

The maker of Lunchables and Jell-O anticipates adjusted earnings to be in a range of $2.63 to $2.74 per share for fiscal 2025, while the current consensus on FactSet is for $3.04. In the previous year, adjusted EPS increased 2.7% annually to $3.06. The stock fell 3.7% in Wednesday trading.

Organic sales are set to be flat to down 2.5% for the current year, with prices expected to provide a flat to "slightly" positive benefit throughout the period. Organic revenue decreased 2.1% in fiscal 2024.

"Although 2024 was a challenging year with our top line results coming in below our expectations, we remained disciplined in protecting profitability while driving industry-leading margins, generating strong cash flow, and returning $2.7 billion in capital to stockholders," Chief Executive Carlos Abrams-Rivera said in a statement.

For the three-month period ended Dec. 28, adjusted EPS advanced to $0.84 from $0.78 last year, which was the Street's view. Sales declined to $6.58 billion from $6.86 billion in the prior-year quarter, trailing the average analyst estimate of $6.66 billion. Organic sales decreased 3.1%.

Revenue in North America slipped 3.9% to $4.97 billion, while international developed markets moved down 3.6% to $913 million. Emerging markets saw sales fall to $695 million from $745 million last year.

Prices grew by one percentage point in the quarter amid gains in North America and emerging markets. The company said it implemented higher prices in certain categories to counter an increase in input costs. Overall volume mix was down 4.1 percentage points with declines in each segment, due in part to continuous changes in consumer behavior amid economic uncertainty, Kraft Heinz ( KHC ) said.

Organic sales are expected to come in lower in the first quarter versus the prior three-month period, "driven primarily by an approximate 100 basis point headwind for total Kraft Heinz ( KHC ) due to an Easter shift," Chief Financial Officer Andre Maciel said in a prepared remarks transcript available on the company's website. "As a result, we expect to see lighter sales in the first quarter, with an offset in the second quarter," according to Maciel.

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