March 28/Chicago/Food & Beverage Close-Up -- ConAgra Foods Inc. noted that diluted EPS from continuing operations was $0.50, a 2% increase over the $0.49 earned in the year-ago period. Diluted EPS from continuing operations increased 16% after adjusting for $0.06 per diluted share of net benefit in the year-ago period from items impacting comparability. Items impacting comparability, including those relating to business segment performance, for the current fiscal year (no net EPS impact) and prior fiscal year are summarized toward the end of this release and reconciled for Regulation G purposes on pages 9 and 10.
Gary Rodkin, ConAgra Foods' chief executive officer, said, "We are pleased that fiscal third-quarter results demonstrate comparable EPS and segment operating profit growth, despite high input cost inflation and other challenging economic conditions. Sequential price/mix trends in our Consumer Foods segment are directionally improving as we expected. While inflationary pressures continue to build and difficult conditions persist, we expect our performance to continue to benefit from pricing actions under way, strong supply chain cost savings, and other profit-enhancing initiatives we have previously detailed. We are confident in our ability to post a low-single-digit rate of EPS growth over the comparable $1.74 earned last fiscal year."