Pilgrim's Pride Corp. Reports Operating Results (10-K)

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Feb 17, 2012
Pilgrim's Pride Corp. (PPC, Financial) filed Annual Report for the period ended 2011-12-25.

Pilgrim's Pride Corp. has a market cap of $1.12 billion; its shares were traded at around $5.7 with and P/S ratio of 0.2.

Highlight of Business Operations:

For purposes of computing the ratio of earnings to fixed charges, earnings consist of income before income taxes plus fixed charges (excluding capitalized interest). Fixed charges consist of interest (including capitalized interest) on all indebtedness, amortization of capitalized financing costs and that portion of rental expense that we believe to be representative of interest. Earnings were inadequate to cover fixed charges by $490.6 million, $69.5 million, $229.8 million, $176.5 million, and $1,191.2 million in 2011, 2010,the Transition Period, the three months ended December 27, 2008, 2009, and 2008, respectively.

On January 13, 2010, we started purchasing derivative financial instruments, specifically exchange-traded futures and options, in an attempt to mitigate price risk related to our anticipated consumption of commodity inputs such as corn, soybean meal and natural gas. At December 25, 2011, the fair values of commodity derivative assets and commodity derivative liabilities totaled $2.9 million and $2.7 million, respectively. Our counterparties require that we post cash collateral for changes in the net fair value of the derivative contracts. At December 25, 2011, we had posted $3.3 million of cash collateral with our counterparties to secure our open positions. We do not designate derivative financial instruments that we purchase to mitigate commodity purchase exposures as cash flow hedges; therefore, we recognize changes in the fair value of these derivative financial instruments immediately in earnings. The Company recognized $63.8 million and $69.2 million in net gains and net losses of $21.1 million related to changes in the fair value of its derivative financial instruments during 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively. We did not recognize gains or losses related to changes in derivative financial instruments during the Transition Period. At December 25, 2011, we held written put options expiring March 2012 on 500 corn contracts, in a liability position, with an aggregate fair value of $0.6 million. At December 25, 2011, we were also in short positions on 2,531 corn contracts and 96 soybean meal contracts with an aggregate fair value of $0.5 million.

US sales generated in 2011 increased $541.7 million, or 8.7%, from US sales generated in 2010, which resulted from higher domestic sales of $5,986.4 million compared to $5,671.3 million in the prior year and higher export sales of $792.3 million compared to $565.7 million in the prior year. An increase in unit sales volume, which resulted primarily from higher demand and the Company's focused inventory reduction efforts during 2011 contributed $596.4 million, or 9.6 percentage points, to the period's revenue increase. A decrease in net revenue per pound sold, which resulted primarily from a less favorable product mix sold in the current year as compared to the prior year, partially offset the positive impact that increased unit sales volume had on the period's revenue comparison by $54.7 million, or 0.9 percentage points. Included in US sales generated during 2011 and 2010 were sales to JBS USA, LLC totaling $117.9 million and $5.4 million, respectively.

Interest expense. Consolidated interest expense increased 5.7% to $111.5 million in 2011 from $105.6 million in 2010 primarily because of increased average borrowings of $1,483.0 million in 2011 compared to $1,215.7 million in 2010. In addition, the weighted average interest rate increased to 6.7% in 2011 from 6.4% in 2010. As a percent of net sales, interest expense in 2011 and 2010 remained the same at 1.5%.

Interest expense. Interest expense increased 12.9% to $44.7 million recognized in the Transition Period from $39.6 million recognized in the three months ended December 27, 2008 primarily because of increased borrowings and increased interest rates recognized on several of our secured credit facilities. As a percent of net sales, interest expense recognized in the Transition Period increased to 2.8% from 2.1% recognized in the three months ended December 27, 2008.

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