Yahoo Finance

Let's talk eggs, taking a look at Calmaine Foods. That, uh, egg producer reporting third quarter results and the shares down about 3%. This is, in fact, the largest producer and distributor of fresh eggs in the United States. And the company, uh, coming out with numbers here that missed estimates, although there aren't many analysts who cover the company. So there aren't many estimates, but earnings per share coming out at $10 and 38 cents. Net sales coming in just shy of what analysts had been anticipating here. Obviously, the company has been under pressure by because of what we've been seeing in terms of avian flu. Um, but in this statement, they talk a lot about the attempts to increase supply related to that. They talked about a 14% increase in the average number of layer hens during the quarter, um, compared to the to the prior year. They talked about a 33% increase in the company's breeder flocks. Um, and at the same time, Calmaine is doing two other things. They are approving a $500 million share buyback authorization. Um, so that's something that is not helping the shares right now, but in theory could. And they're also, uh, diversifying out of the fresh egg business into the egg product business, buying a company called Echo Lake Foods for about $258 million. Echo Lake, a maker of ready-to-eat egg products and breakfast foods like waffles and frozen cooked omelets. So interesting move there as well. Obviously, there has been a lot of talk about eggs this year. And in the statement as well, uh, the company CEO Sherman Miller talks about the measures that the Trump administration has been taking to try to help the egg supply as well and says they appreciate the current administration's announced plan to address volatility in the egg industry.