Smithfield Foods Inc (NASDAQ:SFD) stock rose 4.28% (As on March 25, 11:18:34 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company beat analysts’ estimates for the fourth-quarter results, driven by strong demand, and said it expects the Middle East conflict to raise its fuel, corn and packaging costs. The company has raised prices to offset rising raw material costs, and has also benefited from increased demand for its products as consumers opt to cook at home more amid tighter budgets. Packaged meat sales rose 4.3% in the quarter ended December 28 from a year earlier. It is a major revenue-generating segment for Smithfield. Fresh pork sales increased 2.1%. Adjusted operating profit was of $402 million, up 27.8% from the fourth quarter of 2024. The company delivered operating margin and adjusted operating margin of 9.5%. Packaged Meats operating profit and adjusted operating profit of $302 million; opetrating profit margin and adjusted operating profit margin of 11.8%

Moreover, he company made significant progress towards its rightsizing strategy in Hog Production, reducing the size of its internal hog production from 14.6 million head in 2024 to 11.1 million head in 2025, which represents approximately 40% of the hogs processed by its Fresh Pork segment. Improved cost structure and productivity improvements on retained farms helped drive a $320 million and a $328 million year-over-year improvement in annual segment operating profit and adjusted operating profit, respectively.

SFD in the fourth quarter of FY 25 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $0.83, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $0.66, according to the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 7 percent to $4.23 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 25, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue by 0.96%.

Smithfield expects total annual sales to be up by low-single-digits, compared with analysts’ estimates of 1.26% growth. It also expects annual adjusted operating profit between $1.33 billion and $1.48 billion, compared with profit of $1.34 billion recorded in fiscal year 2025. The outlook accounts for several risks, including the Middle East conflict, which could push up costs of fuel and petroleum-based materials such as packaging, besides raising corn prices as they also track oil markets. However, they cautioned that the full impact is yet to be determined. The Virginia-based company said it expects protein to remain in high demand this year and for pork to be “well positioned as a healthy, affordable option for consumers.”