Central Garden (CENTA) Reports Q4 Loss, Lags Revenue Estimates

Core Viewpoint - Central Garden (CENTA) reported a quarterly loss of $0.18 per share, which was better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of$0.20, indicating a 10% earnings surprise [1] - The company has shown a trend of surpassing consensus EPS estimates over the last four quarters [2] Financial Performance - For the quarter ended September 2024, Central Garden posted revenues of $669.49 million, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 7.51$750.15 million year-over-year [2] - The company has exceeded consensus revenue estimates two times in the last four quarters [2] Stock Performance - Central Garden shares have declined approximately 5.8% since the beginning of the year, contrasting with the S&P 500's gain of 25.2% [4] - The current Zacks Rank for Central Garden is 4 (Sell), indicating expectations of underperformance in the near future [7] Earnings Outlook - The current consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming quarter is $0.05 on revenues of$640.69 million, and for the current fiscal year, it is $2.40 on revenues of$3.31 billion [8] - The trend of estimate revisions for Central Garden has been unfavorable ahead of the earnings release [7] Industry Context - The Consumer Products - Discretionary industry, to which Central Garden belongs, is currently ranked in the bottom 12% of over 250 Zacks industries, suggesting potential challenges for stock performance [9]