Tyson 4th-Quarter Profit Jumps 91 Percent

Tyson Foods Inc. said Monday higher chicken prices helped push net income up 91 percent for the company’s fourth quarter, despite a dip in revenue.

Reporting before the stock markets opened, the Springdale-based meat processor posted earnings of $185 million, or 51 cents per share, for the quarter that ended Sept. 29, up from $97 million, or 26 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Earnings beat the average estimate of 44 cents per share from 12 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue was down 0.36 percent to $8.37 billion.

Chicken prices rose 9.4 percent in the quarter, helping offset a 3.5 percent drop in sales volume.

For the year, Tyson reported earnings of $583 million, or $1.58 per share, compared to $750 million, or $1.97 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue for the year rose 3 percent to $33.28 billion.

Tyson president and CEO Donnie Smith said in a news release the company’s earnings for the quarter and fiscal year show it’s “rising above the noise of commodity markets to produce solid, more consistent results.”

“It has taken us several years and a lot of work to get to this point, and although there is much more to be done, I believe we have reached a new level of sustainable performance,” he said in the release.

Tyson’s shares were trading at $8.35 at mid-morning Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, up $1.47 or 8.71 percent. Shares have traded between $14.07 and $21.06 in the past year.