RTTNews | Oct 7, 2021 10:01AM EDT

10:01 Thursday, October 7, 2021 (RTTNews.com) - Shares of frozen potato products maker Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (LW) are falling more than 8% in the morning trade on Thursday after reporting first quarter results, that missed analysts' view. The company also provided grim full-year outlook.

"The impact of extreme summer heat that negatively affected potato crops in the Pacific Northwest, combined with industrywide operational challenges, including highly inflationary input and transportation costs, labor availability, and upstream and downstream supply chain disruptions, will result in higher costs as the year progresses, and significantly pressure our earnings. Accordingly, we expect our gross profit margins to remain below pre-pandemic levels through fiscal 2022," said Tom Werner, President and CEO.

The company's net income in the first quarter declined 67% to $29.8 million or $0.20 per share from $89.3 million or $0.61 per share in the same quarter a year ago due to higher expenses. On average 7 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.38 per share.

Net sales, however, increased 13 percent year-over-year to $984.2 million. The consensus estimate was for $1 billion.

Looking forward, the company said it expects fiscal 2022 net sales growth to be above its long-term target of low-to-mid single digits.

LW shares touched a new low of $54.18 this morning, before edging up to $57.02 currently.

Read the original article on RTTNews ( https://www.rttnews.com/3231233/lamb-weston-holdings-drops-8-as-earnings-fall-shy-of-estimates-grim-outlook.aspx)

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