CalMaine Foods Scales 52-Week High: What's Driving the Stock?

CalMaine Foods’ CALM shares hit a fresh 52-week high of $99.63 yesterday, before closing the session lower at $96.49.CALM stock has gained 35.3% over the past three months against the industry’s 0.6% dip. It has also outperformed the S&P 500’s rise of 6.1% over the same period. The Basic Materials sector has declined 3.4% in the same time frame.  Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Let us take a look into the factors that are driving CALM stock.CALM Posts Solid 1Q25 Results on Higher Pricing & SalesCalMaine’s shares have gained 29% since its reported first-quarter fiscal 2025 results on Oct. 1, 2024. The company reported earnings of $3.06 per share, which marked a solid improvement from 2 cents reported in the year-ago quarter. Net sales surged 71% year over year to $785.9 million. The improvement in both the top and bottom lines was attributed to the net average selling price of shell eggs as well as an increase in total dozens sold.Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise  Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. QuoteCALM sold 310.0 million dozens of shell eggs, 13.5% higher than the first quarter of fiscal 2024. Sales of conventional eggs totaled 200.0 million dozens compared with 181.5 million dozens in the prior-year quarter. Specialty egg volumes sold increased 20.1% to 110 million dozens from the year-ago quarter figure. CalMaine made quarterly records for the total dozens sold and specialty dozens sold.This performance was commendable considering the outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), which impacted the national egg supply. Despite this backdrop, CalMaine’s higher volumes and sales were supported by its efforts to boost production capacity through recent acquisitions and consistent organic growth.During the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2024, CalMaine also reported HPAI outbreaks within its facilities located in Kansas and Texas that led to the total depopulation of approximately 3.1 million laying hens and 577,000 pullets. Both locations have since been cleared by the USDA as fit to resume operations.Farm production costs per dozen declined 11.7% from the year-ago quarter due to more favorable commodity pricing for key feed ingredients. Feed costs per dozen were down 17.3%.CalMaine to Add Capacity, New Products to Fuel GrowthIn October, CalMaine announced that its board of directors approved $40 million in new capital projects to expand its cage-free production capabilities. The projects will be funded through a combination of available cash on hand, sales of investment securities and operating cash flow.The projects include the addition of five new cage-free layer houses across CALM’s locations in Florida, Georgia, Utah and Texas. Construction is expected to start by the end of 2024. These projects will add production capacity for approximately 1.0 million cage-free layer hens by late summer 2025. These additions will replace recently retired caged facilities and add to its cage-free capacity.CalMaine has also been remodeling the assets acquired from Tyson Foods, Inc. TSN in March 2024 for shell egg production. The assets concerned were a broiler processing plant, hatchery and feed mill in Dexter, MO.CALM remains focused on being the most efficient and sustainable producer of fresh shell eggs and egg products. In line with the evolving consumer demand, it is providing choices that include conventional, cage-free, organic, brown, free-range, pasture-raised and nutritionally enhanced eggs.The company is also expanding its product portfolio to include value-added egg products. This is evident in its investment in Meadowcreek Foods, LLC for hard-cooked eggs and in Crepini Foods, a new venture offering egg products and prepared foods. CalMaine expects to leverage the Crepini brand of quality products, including egg wraps and protein pancakes, to extend its reach to major retailers.CALM’s Zacks Rank & Key PicksCalMaine currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).Some better-ranked stocks in the Basic Materials space are CF Industries Inc. CF and Carpenter Technology Corporation CRS. Both CF and CRS sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.CF Industries has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 10.3%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CF’s 2024 earnings is pegged at $6.32 per share. CF’s shares gained 20.6% in the last year.Carpenter Technology has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 14.1%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CRS’ fiscal 2025 earnings is pegged at $6.61 per share. Its shares gained 162.7% in the last year.5 Stocks Set to DoubleEach was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2024. While not all picks can be winners, previous recommendations have soared +143.0%, +175.9%, +498.3% and +673.0%.Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF): Free Stock Analysis Report Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN): Free Stock Analysis Report Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (CALM): Free Stock Analysis Report Carpenter Technology Corporation (CRS): Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks