Conagra Brands

“areas like Ardent Mills, where although our equity profit is off $0.10, our cash is on plan.”

Conagra's Ardent Mills flour-milling JV saw equity profit fall $0.10 as low wheat prices/volatility cut commodity-trading gains, though cash distributions held to plan.

“Walmart has said that they're going to eliminate dirty additives from the whole of their private label portfolio.”

An analyst cites Walmart's plan to remove additives across its private-label portfolio while asking about health-and-wellness trends, a reformulation read-through for Walmart.

“we think that we can cover the shortfall in Ardent and still stay in the EPS range.”

Conagra lowered expectations for its Ardent Mills milling JV trading business, a negative read-through for the Ardent Mills joint venture.

“Banquet Mega Chicken Filets is a bag of fried chicken fillets that basically mimics what you would buy at Chick-fil-A which is the hottest QSR that you can find that kids all love obviously.”

Conagra benchmarks its top-performing new product, Banquet Mega Chicken Fillets, against Chick-fil-A, implying strong consumer demand and premium positioning associated with the QSR chain.

“we're excited about the continued strong performance of our chili business, including Wendy's chili, which recently introduced its new No Bean variety.”

Conagra's licensed Wendy's-branded chili product line is called out as a strong performer within its staples business, reflecting a healthy retail licensing partnership with Wendy's.

“Ardent's results can fluctuate based on volatility with the wheat market. So the core business of Ardent, in the milling and selling of flour products at a margin, is very strong. They do a great job servicing customers.”

Conagra holds an equity stake in the Ardent Mills flour-milling joint venture; management notes the core milling business is performing very strongly even though the commodity-linked wheat revenue component is volatile.