The second-quarter earnings season so far is showing that one trend that featured in the first quarter has not gone away.
“Greedflation,” or the practice of companies raising prices to protect their profit margins, is alive and well, based on the number of companies that have so far acknowledged raising prices yet again, even as inflation readings have come down and as some acknowledge that their input costs are falling.
At the same time, companies continue to emphasize on earnings calls that their customers are showing signs they are weary of higher prices and are shopping more frequently at more stores, while spending less per trip.
See: Consumers are shopping in more stores than ever before to save money
“Across industries, we’ve seen the same story over and over the last two years,” said Liz Zelnick, director of economic security and corporate power at Accountable.US, a liberal-leaning consumer-advocacy group.
“CEOs claim outside forces made them gouge consumers, then turn around and give themselves raises and boast of record profits and billions in new investor handouts,” she said, referring to the billions of stock buybacks and dividend payouts the same companies have made.
See: U.S. inflation slows again, CPI shows, as Fed weighs another rate hike
Also read: U.S. wholesale inflation slows to a crawl, PPI shows
Procter & Gamble Co.
PG,
for example, said it raised prices by up to 9% in its latest quarter, after raising them up to 10% the previous quarter and up to 10% in the same quarter in 2022.
On a call with analysts, Chief Executive Jon Moeller signaled more price increases to come, which he attributed to the company’s innovation pipeline, which is creating must-have products.
“If you look back historically, pricing has been a positive contributor to our top-line growth for something like 48 out of the 51 last quarters and again as we strengthen our innovation program even further, that will provide opportunities to continue to benefit from modest pricing,” said Moeller, according to a FactSet transcript.
See also: Colgate to keep raising prices as inflation slows to boost margins and profit
The company blew past earnings estimates with adjusted per-share earnings of $1.37, ahead of the $1.32 FactSet consensus, and sales of $20.6 billion, versus the $20 billion FactSet consensus.
Gross margin increased 380 basis points from a year ago, driven by 340 basis points of pricing benefit and 290 basis points of productivity savings.
Coca-Cola Co.
KO,
also swept past estimates and raised guidance after the drinks and snacks giant increased prices by 10%. The company’s adjusted operating margin rose to 31.6% from 30.6% a year ago.
Conagra Brands Inc.
CAG,
raised prices by up to 17%, which Chief Executive Sean Connolly described as “inflation-justified.” The parent of brands such as Birds Eye, Duncan Hines, Hunt’s, Orville Redenbacher’s and Slim Jim also reported that its customers are buying less food to stretch their budgets.
For more, see: Consumers are now ‘hunkering down’ rather than ‘trading down’ on groceries, Conagra says
Oreo cookie maker Mondelez International Inc.
MDLZ,
raised prices in North America by 10.4 percentage points in the second quarter and raised prices for all developed markets by 12.4 percentage points. That’s after raising North America prices by 15 percentage points and prices in developed markets by 13.4 percentage points in the first quarter.
The company’s second-quarter gross margins expanded by 3.1 percentage points to 39.4%. Revenues rose 17%, while volumes were flat.
At Campbell Soup Co.
CPB,
sales for its fiscal third quarter were up 5%, led by “favorable net price realization,” as the company disclosed as the very first bullet point in its release. Campbell raised prices of meals and beverages by 9% and if snacks by 15%, after raising them by 15% and 13%, respectively, in the second quarter.
However, volumes were down in the third quarter as shoppers proved sensitive to higher prices.
Kraft Heinz Co.
KHC,
on Tuesday said it too has lost business because it raised prices more than its competitors, but it’s not planning to cut prices to try to get those customers back anytime soon.
“[W]hile we did lose share in the quarter, as price gaps have stayed wider for longer than we would have liked, we are managing the business for the long term and still generated mid-single-digit top-line growth within the range of what we expected,” Chief Executive Miguel Patricio said.
The company, parent to brands including Kraft Mac and Cheese, Heinz Ketchup, Jell-O and Lunchables, indicated on the post-earnings conference call with analysts that rather than increasing discounting, or just cutting prices, it will remain focused on protecting margins, which has been allowing it to accelerate investment in the business, particularly in marketing, research and development and technology.
Besides, as Chief Financial Officer Andre Maciel said, the gaps between Kraft’s prices and those of competitors are not getting worse. “If anything, they are slightly getting better,” Maciel said, according to an AlphaSense transcript.
Considering the market-share losses and with inflation coming down, “do you think you took too much price, given you said you took price ahead of competitors, and they have not followed?” UBS analyst Cody Ross asked on the conference call.
CEO Miguel Patricio’s answer was simple: “No.”
“I mean, we had very high inflation. And we are leaders in the vast majority of categories where we play. And it’s our role as leader to try to compensate … this inflation with price increases,” Patricio said. “So I would do everything again. I mean we can always go back on price if we think we have to or when we have to. But we had to lead price increases.”
All of that leaves families to foot the bill for higher food prices, said Accountable.US’s Zelnick.
The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund
XLP
has gained 1.2% in the year to date, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF
XRT
has gained 10.3%. The S&P 500
XRT
has gained 17%.
Tomi Kilgore contributed.
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