Freshpet reports Q3 EPS $1.86 wit items, consensus 40c

Reports Q3 revenue $288.8M, consensus $283.73M. Q3 EPS includes deferred income tax benefit resulting from the release of a $77.9M valuation allowance in the current period as a result of sustained profitability and the expected future profitability, contribution from higher sales, and decreased SG&A expenses, partially offset by decrease in gross profit as a percentage of net sales. “We are quickly adjusting to the new economic reality and remain one of the best performing pet food businesses-with strong financial and operational results and category-leading growth,” commented Billy Cyr, Freshpet’s (FRPT) CEO. “With such rapid change in consumer behavior earlier this year, we quickly adapted our marketing, distribution, and innovation strategies. While we believe that those strategies will drive further household penetration growth, we are revising our guidance to the lower end of the previous range to reflect the current environment. We are also maintaining financial discipline by further lowering our capital spending plans, which helped us achieve positive free cash flow in the third quarter and we now expect to be free cash flow positive for FY25 as well-a year earlier than our original goal. While we are not where we expected to be at the start of the year, we firmly believe Freshpet is best positioned to capture the future growth of the category and expect to continue to build market share, grow household penetration, and win a disproportionate share of new pet parents. That will enable us to create significant shareholder value and fulfill our mission to elevate the way we feed our pets with fresh food that nourishes all.”