UPDATE 3-Campbell warns on full-year profit, shares fall
* Q1 EPS ex-items $0.77 vs Wall St view $0.76
* Sales up 3 percent to $2.25 billion
* Forex to hurt 2009 sales, EPS growth
* Shares down 8 pct (Recasts first sentence, adds analyst comment, updates share price)
NEW YORK, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Campbell Soup Co (CPB.N) warned on Monday that a stronger U.S. dollar would hurt full-year earnings, sending shares down 8 percent after the foodmaker's quarterly profit beat Wall Street expectations by a penny.
Campbell and other leading foodmakers have benefited as a contracting U.S. economy forces more consumers to stay at home and prepare more of their own meals. Food companies have also managed to raise prices for their products to offset higher commodity costs.
But Campbell said that a stronger dollar, which lowers the value of sales overseas, would reduce fiscal 2009 sales and earnings growth rates by about 5 percentage points each.
The world's largest soup maker derives about 25 to 30 percent of its sales from outside the United States.
Campbell shares were down $2.90 or 8 percent at $33.37, off an earlier low at $33.02, on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday afternoon.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher Growe said there may still be some downside to Campbell's stock, which touched a year high of $40.85 on Oct. 1, as food stocks were seen as a safer bet amid growing economic worries.
The growth in Campbell's U.S. soup sales, though strong, had come against easy comparisons and produced relatively little in terms of profit growth during the quarter, Growe noted. The reduction in Campbell's fiscal 2009 outlook was not a big surprise, he said.
STRONG U.S. SOUP SALES
Campbell posted a net profit of $260 million, or 71 cents a share in the first quarter ended Nov. 2, compared with $270 million, or 70 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding an unrealized loss on commodity hedges and costs tied to restructuring, the company earned 77 cents a share, beating analysts' average forecast of 76 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.
Total sales for Campbell, known for its namesake soups, and other brands such as Prego pasta sauce and Pepperidge Farm cookies, rose 3 percent to $2.25 billion. Continued...
