Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC) stock fell 1.05% (As on February 19, 11:26:11 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company beat Wall Street’s earnings and sales expectations, but offered soft profit guidance for the year, a sign of rising pressure from higher costs. The company also announced on its earnings it would pause further price hikes in North America, Europe, Latin America and most of Asia after PepsiCo did the same last week. The company swung to a profit in the period, too, reporting $887 million in net income, versus a loss of $255 million, a year earlier. Though packaged food companies have increased prices over the last two years, they still struggle with rising commodity costs and supply chain issues. Kraft Heinz boosted pricing 15.2% with a 4.8% decline in volume — the amount of units sold. The company cited price pressures and supply constraints in describing why volumes fell.

KHC in the fourth quarter of FY 22 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of 85 cents, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of 78 cents, according to Refinitiv. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 10 percent to $7.38 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 22, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $7.27 billion. Organic Net Sales increased 10.4 percent versus the prior year period. Price increased 15.2 percentage points versus the prior year period, with increases in both reportable segments primarily driven by price increases to mitigate rising input costs. Volume/mix declined 4.8 percentage points versus the prior year period, with declines in both reportable segments that were primarily driven by supply constraints and elasticity impacts from pricing actions. Adjusted EBITDA increased 8.6 percent versus the year-ago period to $1.7 billion, including a positive 7.4 percentage point impact from a 53rd week, a negative 4.9 percentage point impact from divestitures and acquisitions, and a negative 2.1 percentage point impact from currency. The remaining year-over-year increase in Adjusted EBITDA is a result of higher pricing and efficiency gains that more than offset higher supply chain costs (reflecting inflationary pressure in procurement, logistics, and manufacturing costs), higher commodity costs (mainly in dairy, packaging materials, energy, and soybean and vegetable oils), as well as unfavorable volume/mix.

The company expects organic net sales growth of 4% to 6% in 2023, slightly above estimates of 4.8%.

Kraft Heinz launched a campaign titled “LVII Meanz 57,” protesting the use of Roman numerals, ahead of Super Bowl 57. The brand launched a website where consumers could vote on whether or not Roman numerals should be dropped.