Shares of Smithfield Foods (SFD) rose in premarket trading Tuesday after the pork giant reported its first quarterly results since its initial public offering (IPO).
Smithfield Foods reported a fourth-quarter profit from continuing operations of $211 million on $3.95 billion in sales. In a regulatory filing ahead of its January IPO, the Smithfield, Va.-based firm said it expected to report net income of $195 million to $223 million on sales of $3.87 billion to $3.95 billion for the three months ended Dec. 29, compared with a net loss of $131 million on $4.00 billion in sales a year earlier.
For 2025, Smithfield sees an adjusted operating profit of $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion, up from $1.02 billion last year, on sales that are expected to increase by a low- to mid-single-digit percentage from the $14.14 billion it reported in 2024.
Smithfield, the largest pork producer in the country, previously had been publicly traded before it was taken private by China-based WH Group in a $4.87 billion deal in 2013. WH Group still owns about 90% of the company following the recent IPO.
Smithfield shares rose 3.5% immediately following the report. They entered Tuesday slightly below the $19.75 level where they ended on their first day of trading after opening on the Nasdaq at $21.05. The stock rose about 3% Monday on news that Smithfield had been added to the Russell 1000 as part of the index’s quarterly addition of eligible recent IPOs.