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In a press release dated April 29th Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (PPC) announced results for the 1st Quarter of 2020 ending March 29th March. The following table summarizes the results for the period compared with the values for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year (Values expressed as US$ x 1,000 except EPS)

Jayson Penn CEO Pilgrim's Pride

52-Week Range in Share Price: $15.75 to $33.67 50-day Moving average $18.90

Market Close Wed 29th April pre-release $22.01; Open Thursday 30 th post-release $20.71

Forward P/E 8.0 Beta 0.9

In a statement accompanying the press release, president and CEO of PPC, Jayson Penn stated “We are grateful to our team members for their commitment, dedication, and continued hard work, in supporting our ability to keep our team members safe and healthy, while maintaining production and supply to our customers during this unprecedented crisis. Despite the volatile and challenging markets in Q1, in part due to Covid-19, our strategy has continued to achieve solid results in relative performance to industry competition, and deliver more resilient performance regardless of changes in specific market conditions. Operating results in Europe significantly improved but were more than offset by difficult market dynamics in the U.S. and Mexico. In spite of the difficult global macro conditions, our results have remained well-balanced, and are the result of our vision to become the best and most respected company, creating the opportunity of a better future for our team members..

Penn continued “in the U.S., the market tracked normal seasonality initially during Q1 before wider implementations of travel and movement restrictions due to Covid-19 disrupted retail and foodservice channel demand. The large-bird deboning market was especially volatile during the quarter and remained challenging compared to 2019. Operationally however, we continue to improve our relative performance versus the industry across all our business units, including large bird deboning. We also adapted quickly to the change in channel demand by shifting the mix of our production capabilities, supported by our close partnerships with Key Customers, strong focus in execution by our team members, the geographical diversity of our footprint, and our presence across all bird size categories.”

In opining on Mexico, Penn stated “the market environment in Mexico during Q1 was difficult as weak macro conditions persisted longer than expected, contributing to uncertainties in consumer spending. Prices, especially in the traditional markets, were below seasonal expectations before rebounding to reach normal levels by the end of the quarter. Our increased share of non-commodity products, strong execution, and growth in Prepared Foods, helped to partially offset the weakness.”

The European components were reviewed by Penn, including “the legacy operations once again delivered robust results in Q1, maintaining the trend achieved in the last three quarters of 2019. We generated revenue that was in-line with last year while operating income significantly improved year on year, and was 8% higher than the previous quarter. Our newly acquired European operations also performed well and continued to generate positive EBITDA. The increase in performance was driven by robust demand at retail, partially offset by a reduction in foodservice, continuing strength in pork exports especially to China, as well as the initial implementations of operational improvements.”