Hormel 4th-qtr profit jumps despite sales decline

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Hormel Foods Corp (HRL.N) posted a 53 percent jump in quarterly profit, aided by lower hog prices and stronger sales of its namesake chili, and said earnings should rise in the current fiscal year.

The company, which also makes Spam luncheon meat, Dinty Moore canned stew and Jennie-O turkey, raised its annual dividend by 10.5 percent to 84 cents per share.

Hormel earned $103.9 million, or 77 cents a share, for the fourth quarter ended October 25, up from $67.8 million, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 68 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales fell 10 percent to $1.68 billion, falling short of analysts' forecast of $1.82 billion. Hormel said the sales shortfall stemmed from lower pork and turkey prices, a planned drop in production of Jennie-O turkey products, the continued weak consumer environment and other factors.

Hormel forecast fiscal 2010 earnings of $2.63 per share to $2.73 per share, up from a fiscal 2009 profit of $2.53 per share. Analysts' average forecast has been $2.59 per share.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)