MAMA

Philip Morris International Inc. PM reported third-quarter 2026 results, wherein both top and bottom lines beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate and increased year over year. PM posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $2.36 per share, which increased 5.4% year over year. Excluding currency effects, the adjusted earnings jumped 5.8% year over year. The bottom line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.30. Philip Morris International Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Philip Morris International Inc. Quote Net revenues of $11,438 million increased 5.5% on a reported basis and 7.1% organically year over year. Revenues beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $11,409 million. Growth was driven by favorable combustible pricing and smoke-free product demand. Total shipment volumes increased 0.6% to 206.2 billion units. Adjusted gross profit increased 6.7% (up 8.3% organically) to $7,860 million. Adjusted gross profit margin expanded 80 basis points to 68.7%, supported by favorable combustible pricing, scale benefits and the smoke-free product mix. Adjusted operating income rose 9.6% to $5,117 million, while adjusted operating margin expanded 160 basis points to 44.7%. Net revenues in the International Smoke-Free segment increased 0.7% (up 3.4% organically) to $3,867 million, reflecting favorable volume/mix from higher heated tobacco unit ("HTU") and e-vapor volumes, alongside favorable HTU pricing. Adjusted gross profit increased 0.8% (up 3.3% organically) to $2,705 million. Shipment volumes grew 2.7% to 44.5 billion units, supported by growth in Taiwan, Global Travel Retail, Greece, Germany and Bulgaria. HTU shipments increased 1.5% to 41.5 billion units, while HTU adjusted in-market sales rose 7.1%. VEEV e-vapor shipments surged 61.6%, reflecting continued geographic expansion. Net revenues in the International Combustibles segment increased 6.5% (up 7.8% organically) to $6,725 million. Growth reflected favorable pricing and the restructuring of distribution terms in certain markets, partly offset by an unfavorable geographic mix. Adjusted gross profit increased 8.6% (up 9.8% organically) to $4,610 million. Cigarette shipment volumes remained broadly flat at 158 billion units. Higher shipments in Turkey, Indonesia and Egypt offset declines in Russia, Poland and Japan. The segment benefited from 8.9% pricing growth, while elevated energy-related input costs remained a headwind. Marlboro's cigarette category share increased 50 basis points to a record 11.4%. Net revenues in the U.S. segment jumped 22.7% to $845 million, driven by higher ZYN shipments, favorable pricing comparisons against prior-year promotions and contributions from the Wellness and cigar businesses. Adjusted gross profit increased 23.9% to $544 million, with organic growth of 23.8%. Total segment shipment volumes increased 2.3% to 3.7 billion equivalent units. ZYN shipments grew 4.2% to 3.2 billion pouches. Adjusted operating companies income increased 1.5% organically to $171 million, reflecting higher marketing investments. Management plans additional investments in the fourth quarter to support ZYN portfolio expansion and the transition to 20-pouch cans. The company ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $6,683 million, long-term debt of $41,709 million and a total shareholder deficit of $5,945 million. Philip Morris also raised its quarterly dividend 8.8% to $1.60 per share. For 2026, Philip Morris now expects adjusted earnings of $8.29-$8.44 per share, indicating growth of 9.9-11.9%. Earlier, the metric was expected in the $8.26-$8.41 per share range, implying 9.5-11.5% growth. Excluding currency, adjusted earnings are projected at $8.11-$8.26 per share, implying an increase of 7.5-9.5%. Reported earnings per share are expected in the $7.11-$7.26 range. Earlier, the metric was expected in the $7.19-$7.34 per share range. For 2026, PM still expects net revenues to increase 5-7% on an organic basis. The operating income on an organic basis is likely to rise 7-9%. Management now expects total cigarette and smoke-free product shipment volumes to grow in 2026, compared with its previous forecast of broadly stable to slightly growing volumes. Smoke-free shipments are expected to increase at a high-single-digit rate, while cigarette volumes are projected to decline at a rate similar to the year-to-date trend. Management still expects an operating cash flow of around $13.5 billion in 2026. Capital expenditures are likely to be in the band of $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion, primarily implying investments to support the smoke-free business. Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 2.9% in the past three months compared with the industry's growth of 1.2%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. CHEF distributes specialty food and center-of-the-plate products in the United States, the Middle East and Canada. At present, CHEF carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The consensus estimate for Chefs' Warehouse's current fiscal-year sales and earnings implies growth of 10.8% and 34.2%, respectively, from the year-ago reported figures. Chefs' Warehouse delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 30.4%, on average. Mama's Creations, Inc. MAMA manufactures and markets fresh deli-prepared foods in the United States. At present, MAMA holds a Zacks Rank of 2. Mama's Creations delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 121.7%, on average. The consensus estimate for Mama's Creations' current fiscal-year sales and earnings implies growth of 30.3% and 66.7%, respectively, from the year-ago figures. Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. LW engages in the production, distribution and marketing of frozen potato products in the United States, Canada, Mexico and internationally. LW presently carries a Zacks Rank of 2. Lamb Weston delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 22.1%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Lamb Weston's current fiscal-year earnings indicates growth of 7.6% from the year-ago numbers. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) : Free Stock Analysis Report The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. (CHEF) : Free Stock Analysis Report Lamb Weston (LW) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mama's Creations, Inc. (MAMA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. LW shares have rallied 12.6% since the company reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Oct. 6, 2026. The stock's impressive run follows a better-than-expected quarterly performance and an upward revision to the company's full-year financial outlook. Stronger sales volumes in North America, improved operating execution and ongoing cost-saving efforts were among the key highlights of the quarter, providing important context for the recent share-price momentum. Lamb Weston reported first-quarter net sales of $1.67 billion, up 1% year over year, supported by a 2% increase in sales volumes that was partly offset by unfavorable price/mix. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) improved to 75 cents from 74 cents in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA declined 5% to $286 million but exceeded the company's expectations. North America remained a key bright spot, with segment net sales increasing 5% and sales volumes rising 7%, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of volume growth. Segment adjusted EBITDA grew 11% to $287 million, supported by higher volumes, cost savings, tariff refunds and improved equity-method investment earnings. Price/mix declined 1.7%, an improvement from the 2.4% decrease recorded in the preceding quarter. Following the encouraging start, Lamb Weston raised its fiscal 2027 net sales outlook to low-single-digit growth from the earlier projection of flat to 1% growth. The adjusted EBITDA forecast was increased to $1.125-$1.215 billion from $1.10-$1.20 billion, while adjusted EPS guidance was lifted to $3.05-$3.35 from $2.95-$3.25. Following its nearly 13% post-earnings rally, Lamb Weston's focus remains on delivering against its raised fiscal 2027 outlook. Sustained volume growth in North America, improving price/mix trends and continued cost savings are important elements of its operating performance. For the second quarter, Lamb Weston expects low-single-digit sales growth and high-single-digit to low-double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth. However, persistent input-cost inflation and weaker international performance remain challenges. The company's ability to sustain operating improvements, strengthen profitability and navigate ongoing cost pressures will remain central to assessing the momentum behind LW's recent stock rally. Shares of this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company have gained 7.9% over the past three months against the industry's decline of 3.4%. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research From a valuation standpoint, Lamb Weston trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 15.12, above the industry's average of 13.79. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Lamb Weston's current and next fiscal-year earnings per share implies year-over-year growth of 6.3% and 10.4%, respectively. The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. CHEF, a premier distributor of specialty food products, currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). CHEF delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 30.4%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for The Chefs' Warehouse's current fiscal-year sales and EPS implies growth of 10.8% and 33.7%, respectively, from the year-ago figures. Mama's Creations, Inc. MAMA, a prepared-foods company focused on fresh, ready-to-eat and deli products, currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2. MAMA delivered a trailing four-quarter surprise of 121.7%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Mama's Creations' current fiscal-year sales and EPS indicates respective increases of 30.3% and 66.7% from the year-ago period. Laird Superfood, Inc. LSF, a consumer product company that develops, manufactures and markets plant-based, natural and functional food and beverage products, currently carries a Zacks Rank #2. LSF delivered an earnings surprise of 100% in the last reported quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Laird Superfood's current fiscal-year sales and EPS implies growth of 188.2% and 104%, respectively, from the year-ago figures. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Lamb Weston (LW) : Free Stock Analysis Report The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. (CHEF) : Free Stock Analysis Report Laird Superfood, Inc. (LSF) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mama's Creations, Inc. (MAMA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Helen of Troy Limited HELE reported improved profitability in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, supported by strength in its Home & Outdoor business, favorable tariff-related benefits and lower interest expenses. Management also raised its annual earnings outlook. The company posted adjusted earnings of 79 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 51 cents. The bottom line increased 33.9% from 59 cents reported in the year-ago quarter. Net sales increased 2.1% year over year to $440.9 million. The Zacks Consensus Estimate was pegged at $441.5 million. Helen of Troy Limited price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Helen of Troy Limited Quote The top line benefited from strong demand for packs, higher international sales, assortment and distribution gains, increased closeout channel sales and new product launches. These gains were partly offset by weakness in hair appliances, prestige hair care and water filtration. The consolidated gross margin expanded 800 basis points (bps) to 52.2%, primarily reflecting favorable tariff refunds, net of higher tariff costs and lower retail trade and promotional expenses. Tariff-related effects contributed approximately 560 bps to the improvement. Inflationary product costs and unfavorable inventory obsolescence trends partly offset these gains. The consolidated selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expense ratio increased 540 bps to 46.4%, reflecting higher personnel expenses, packaging-related costs, marketing investments and divestiture litigation expenses. Adjusted operating income increased 40.9% to $37.9 million, while the adjusted operating margin expanded 240 bps to 8.6%. Adjusted EBITDA rose to $49.4 million from $36.2 million, with the corresponding margin improving 280 bps to 11.2%. Home & Outdoor net sales increased 9.2% to $227.9 million, driven by growth across OXO, Hydro Flask and Osprey. Strong demand for technical, travel and lifestyle packs, higher international sales, distribution gains and new product launches supported performance. The segment's adjusted operating income increased 39.2% to $28 million, while its adjusted operating margin expanded 270 bps to 12.3%. Favorable tariff-related effects and operating leverage supported profitability, partly offset by higher personnel, packaging and marketing costs. Beauty & Wellness net sales declined 4.5% to $213 million. Weak demand for hair appliances and prestige hair care products, competitive pressures, reduced retailer replenishment orders and lower water filtration sales weighed on the performance. These declines were partly offset by higher heater and thermometer sales, strong nail care demand and new product introductions. The segment's adjusted operating income increased 45.7% to $10 million, while its adjusted operating margin improved 160 bps to 4.7%. Helen of Troy ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $22.6 million compared with $22.4 million a year ago. Total short- and long-term debt declined to $672.6 million from $893.2 million in the prior-year period. Inventory decreased to $480.3 million from $528.9 million a year earlier. Accounts receivable turnover increased to 67.6 days from 72.2 days. The company's net leverage ratio improved to 3.0 times from 3.5 times at the end of the preceding quarter. For the first six months of fiscal 2027, operating cash flow increased to $56.5 million from $47.9 million. Free cash flow rose to $38.3 million from $23 million in the year-ago period. Management narrowed its fiscal 2027 net sales guidance to $1,768-$1,822 million from $1,759-$1,831 million. Home & Outdoor sales are projected at $851-$876 million, while Beauty & Wellness sales are anticipated at $917-$946 million. Adjusted earnings guidance was raised to $3.60-$4.15 per share from $3.25-$3.75. Adjusted EBITDA is now expected between $203 million and $210 million, up from the previous projection of $190-$197 million. The company also raised its free cash flow forecast to $120-$140 million from $85-$100 million. Management expects a net leverage ratio of 2.7 times or lower by fiscal year-end. For the third quarter, management anticipates net sales of $478.3-$504.5 million and adjusted earnings of $2.05-$2.40 per share, including an estimated tariff refund benefit of 66-77 cents per share. The second-quarter results included gross pretax tariff refunds of $26.9 million, of which approximately $23 million was reinvested. This resulted in a net pretax benefit of approximately $4 million and an estimated adjusted earnings benefit of 12 cents per share. For fiscal 2027, management expects approximately $80.5 million in gross tariff refunds, with 83-88% earmarked for reinvestment in brand development, organizational capabilities and inventory improvements. The estimated net pretax benefit is $10-$14 million. The outlook incorporates continued inflationary pressures, cautious retailer inventory management, weak discretionary demand and heightened promotional activity. Higher commodity, freight and supply-chain costs remain challenges as management prioritizes brand investment, commercial execution and balance-sheet productivity. The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has rallied 28.2% over the past year against the industry's decline of 1.4%. e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. ELF, a cosmetics and skincare products company currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). ELF delivered a trailing four-quarter surprise of 61.5%, on average. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for e.l.f. Beauty's current fiscal-year sales and earnings per share (EPS) implies growth of 20.3% and 16.6%, respectively, from the year-ago figures. Mondelez International, Inc. MDLZ, a global snacking company, currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). MDLZ delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 5.8%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Mondelez's current fiscal-year sales and EPS implies growth of 3.7% and 4.5%, respectively, from the year-ago figures. Mama's Creations, Inc. MAMA, a prepared-foods company focused on fresh, ready-to-eat and deli products, currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2. MAMA delivered a trailing four-quarter surprise of 121.7%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Mama's Creations' current fiscal-year sales and EPS indicates respective increases of 30.3% and 66.7% from the year-ago period. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Helen of Troy Limited (HELE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mondelez International, Inc. (MDLZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report e.l.f. Beauty (ELF) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mama's Creations, Inc. (MAMA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. LW reported solid first-quarter fiscal 2027 results, wherein both top and bottom lines beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate and increased year over year. LW's adjusted earnings were 75 cents per share, up 1.4% year over year. The bottom line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 59 cents. Lamb Weston price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Lamb Weston Quote Net sales amounted to $1,670.3 million, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1,654 million. The top line increased 0.7% year over year, driven by a 2% increase in sales volume and an immaterial favorable currency impact partially offset by a 2% decline in price/mix. Our model suggested a volume increase of 3.2% in the quarter. Adjusted gross profit fell 6.5% year over year to $316.8 million from $338.9 million. The adjusted gross margin decreased 140 basis points (bps) to 19%. Our model projected adjusted gross margin contraction of about 200 basis points to 18.4%. Adjusted selling, general and administrative expenses rose 5.1% to $139.2 million. As a percentage of sales, the same increased 30 bps to 8.3%. Adjusted EBITDA fell 5.5% year over year to $285.6 million, while adjusted EBITDA margin contracted 110 bps to 17.1%. North America segment sales increased 5.2% year over year to $1,141.4 million. Volume grew 6.7%, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of volume growth, driven by stronger demand from existing customers and customer wins. Price/mix declined 1.7%, reflecting pricing and trade support as well as a mix shift toward faster-growing chain customers and private-label products. Segment adjusted EBITDA increased 11% to $287.3 million, aided by higher volume, cost savings and $5 million of tariff refunds. International segment sales declined 8% to $528.9 million. Volume decreased 6.4%, while price/mix fell 2%, as weaker performance in Europe continued to weigh on the business. International segment adjusted EBITDA plunged 54% to $26.5 million. Lower sales, higher manufacturing costs per pound, prior-year potato cost carry-in, factory underutilization and inflation pressured results. The company ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $166.3 million, long-term debt and financing obligations (excluding the current portion) of $3,578.5 million and total shareholders' equity of $1,806.7 million. LW generated $234.8 million as net cash from operating activities for the 13 weeks ending Aug. 30, 2026, wherein capital expenditures amounted to $91 million. The company returned $52 million to shareholders through dividends during the quarter and had about $245 million remaining under its share-repurchase authorization. Management declared a quarterly dividend of 38 cents per share, payable on Dec. 4, to its shareholders of record as of Nov. 6, 2026. For fiscal 2027, Lamb Weston now expects net sales to increase a low-single-digit percentage from the adjusted fiscal 2026 base of $6.5 billion, compared with prior forecast of flat to 1% growth. Adjusted EBITDA guidance increased to $1.125-$1.215 billion from $1.10-$1.20 billion. Adjusted earnings are now projected between $3.05 and $3.35 per share, up from the previous $2.95-$3.25 range. Capital spending guidance was maintained at $380-$410 million. Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 2.6% in the past three months against the industry's 7.1% decline. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. CHEF distributes specialty food and center-of-the-plate products in the United States, the Middle East and Canada. At present, CHEF flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. The consensus estimate for Chefs' Warehouse's current fiscal-year sales and earnings implies growth of 10.8% and 33.7%, respectively, from the year-ago reported figures. Chefs' Warehouse delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 30.4%, on average. Mama's Creations, Inc. MAMA manufactures and markets fresh deli-prepared foods in the United States. At present, MAMA holds a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). Mama's Creations delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 121.7%, on average. The consensus estimate for Mama's Creations' current fiscal-year sales and earnings implies growth of 30.3% and 66.7%, respectively, from the year-ago figures. Utz Brands UTZ engages in the manufacture, marketing and distribution of snack foods in the United States. It presently carries a Zacks Rank of 2. UTZ delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 1.8%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Utz Brands' current financial-year sales indicates growth of 3.7% from the year-ago numbers. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Lamb Weston (LW) : Free Stock Analysis Report The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. (CHEF) : Free Stock Analysis Report Utz Brands, Inc. (UTZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mama's Creations, Inc. (MAMA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

McCormick & Company, Incorporated MKC delivered a solid third-quarter fiscal 2026 performance, benefiting from the McCormick de Mexico acquisition, organic sales growth and improved profitability. Adjusted earnings of 86 cents per share rose 1.2% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 75 cents. Net sales increased 17.4% to $2,024.8 million, surpassing the consensus mark of $1,979 million. Organic sales grew 1.9%, while adjusted gross margin expanded 180 basis points. McCormick & Company, Incorporated price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | McCormick & Company, Incorporated Quote McCormick's reported sales growth included a 14.6% contribution from the McCormick de Mexico acquisition and a 0.9% favorable currency impact. On a constant-currency basis, net sales advanced 16.5%. Organic sales growth reflected a 2.2% contribution from pricing, partly offset by a 0.3% decline in volume and product mix. Management noted improving trends in Consumer Americas, while demand remained softer among certain CPG and quick-service restaurant customers in Flavor Solutions. Adjusted gross profit was $794.9 million in the quarter, up 23% year over year. Adjusted gross margin expanded 180 basis points to 39.3%, aided by McCormick de Mexico accretion, higher sales and savings from the Comprehensive Continuous Improvement program. Higher commodity and freight costs partly offset these benefits. Adjusted operating income increased 22.1% year over year to $358.5 million, including a 1.2% favorable currency impact. On a constant-currency basis, adjusted operating income rose 20.9%. The increase reflected higher gross profit and productivity savings, partly offset by higher selling, general and administrative expenses related to acquisitions, brand marketing and technology investments. Consumer segment sales increased 24.9% year over year to $1,215 million. McCormick de Mexico contributed 23.2% to growth, while organic sales increased 1.1%. Pricing rose 2.2%, more than offsetting a 1.1% decline in volume and product mix. Consumer-adjusted operating income advanced 24.4% to $241 million. Flavor Solutions sales climbed 7.7% to $809 million, including a 3.4% acquisition contribution. Organic sales grew 3%, supported by a 2.2% increase in pricing and 0.8% growth in volume and mix. Adjusted operating income rose 17.6% to $117 million. Asia-Pacific was a notable growth area, with organic sales increasing 8.3%, supported by new product launches and limited-time offers with QSR customers. Net cash provided by operating activities totaled $598.8 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2026 compared with $420.2 million in the prior-year period. The company paid $387 million in dividends and spent $131.2 million on capital expenditures. McCormick ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $331.1 million. Long-term debt stood at $2,906.1 million, while short-term borrowings and the current portion of long-term debt totaled $2,112.1 million. Management reported a quarter-end leverage ratio of approximately 2.9 times and expects to continue reducing debt ahead of the proposed Unilever Foods combination. McCormick reaffirmed its fiscal 2026 net sales growth outlook of 13-17%, including an expected 11-13% contribution from McCormick de Mexico. Organic sales are projected to grow 1-3% on a constant-currency basis. Management now expects organic growth to land between the low end and midpoint of that range. Adjusted operating income is still projected to increase 16-20%, while adjusted earnings are anticipated between $3.05 and $3.13 per share, representing growth of 2-5%. Management expects adjusted operating income growth and adjusted earnings to finish around the midpoint of their respective ranges. The company continues to expect adjusted gross margin expansion of 100-120 basis points for fiscal 2026 and now anticipates reaching the high end of the range. This comes despite management raising its cost inflation expectation to 6-7% from the prior mid-single-digit forecast. For the fourth quarter, McCormick expects rising commodity and freight expenses, along with increased commercial investments in Consumer Americas, to pressure gross margin. A packaging-material supply constraint could also reduce total company fourth-quarter volume growth by up to one percentage point and is expected to affect full-year organic growth by about 30 basis points. The Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) stock has tumbled 31.9% year to date compared with the industry's decline of 6.5%. Mondelez International, Inc. MDLZ, a global snacking company, currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). MDLZ delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 5.8%, on average. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Mondelez's current fiscal-year sales and earnings per share (EPS) implies growth of 3.7% and 4.5%, respectively, from the year-ago figures. Mama's Creations, Inc. MAMA, a prepared-foods company focused on fresh, ready-to-eat and deli products, currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2. MAMA delivered a trailing four-quarter surprise of 121.7%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Mama's Creations' current fiscal-year sales and EPS indicates respective increases of 30.3% and 66.7% from the year-ago period. Laird Superfood, Inc. LSF, a consumer product company that develops, manufactures and markets plant-based, natural and functional food and beverage products, currently carries a Zacks Rank #2. LSF delivered an earnings surprise of 100% in the last reported quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Laird Superfood's current fiscal-year sales and EPS calls for growth of 188.2% and 104%, respectively, from the year-ago figures. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report McCormick & Company, Incorporated (MKC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mondelez International, Inc. (MDLZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Laird Superfood, Inc. (LSF) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mama's Creations, Inc. (MAMA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Adam L. Michaels Chief Financial Officer - Anthony Gruber Operator: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Mama's Creations, Inc. Second Quarter Fiscal 2027 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This conference is being recorded today, Thursday, September 3, 2026, and the earnings press release accompanying this conference call was issued after the market closed today. On our call today is Mama's Creations Chairman and CEO, Adam L. Michaels, and CFO, Anthony Gruber. Before we get started, I'd like to note that some of the statements on this call will be forward-looking statements that reflect management's current expectations about future operating and financial results. Although management believes their expectations and assumptions are reasonable, they remain subject to significant risks and uncertainty, and actual results for future periods may differ materially from what is stated or implied during today's call. For more information, please refer to the forward-looking statement section in today's press release and the risk factors disclosed in the company's most recent Form 10-K and any subsequent reports it files with the SEC. Please also note that today's call will include a discussion of adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Important information, including required disclosures containing a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, is also detailed in today's press release. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Chairman and CEO, Adam L. Michaels. Adam, the floor is yours. Adam Michaels: Thank you, Luke, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. I'd like to welcome you to our second quarter fiscal '27 financial results conference call. The second quarter was another step change quarter for Mama's. Thanks to the creativity of our sales team, the resilience of our operations team, and the increased capacity from the acquisition of Bay Shore, we grew revenue 55% to $54.6 million and expanded adjusted EBITDA 69% to $5.5 million. Though the real story of this quarter is not the impressive growth rate, but the shape of it. Every single bottom line metric grew faster than revenue. Income from operations, adjusted EBITDA, and net income, which more than doubled. Overheads did not grow with the business. It shrank as a share of it, and gross margin turned back up sequentially as the items we launched in Q1 settled into steady-state production, with room still to run. Anthony will take you through the detail, but what I want you to hear is the sequence, because it is exactly the one we laid out three months ago. Invest into the launch, then harvest the leverage. And this team delivered without skipping even a beat on new distribution gains. Looking forward to potential future M&A, we also fundamentally changed the kind of transaction this company is capable of pursuing. Following our recent offering, we closed the quarter with over $138 million cash war chest and virtually no debt, supported by the strong operating cash flow the business generated on its own. Until now, the size of the opportunity we could chase was largely set by the size of our balance sheet. The dynamics have changed. We can pursue accretive M&A that brings incremental capabilities, capacity, or customer access into the platform, and we can do it from a position of strength. As always, regardless of the size of our increasing war chest, we will remain as steadfast and disciplined in our approach as we did when we started this journey four years ago. Before we get into the quarter itself, let me spend a moment on the macro trends because it keeps getting better. One of, one of the earliest lessons I picked up in my career is that catching an existing current is far easier and far cheaper than trying to manufacture one of your own. In June, McKinsey published research naming the shift from restaurant to ready-to-eat grocery meals as one of the top themes reshaping the entire grocery industry. And, I mean, right up there with e-commerce, retail media, and even AI. Roughly one in four consumers now buy grocery prepared food, specifically as a substitute for ordering from a restaurant, most often replacing quick service and fast casual occasions. And, here's the line I keep coming back to. Prepared foods, by far, the leading driver of trip frequency across every single section of the store. Not one of the drivers, the leading driver, which means that the strategic alignment we have with our retail customers is getting deeper, and our value to their business is only getting stronger. If that's not enough, GLP-1s are only accelerating it. Consumers are walking past the packaged snack aisle and reaching for a high protein meal instead. We continue to be in the right place at the right time with the right product portfolio. And now, finally, with the balance sheet to capture far more than our fair share. And then, there is one that made me smile the most when I sent it to Chris and Lauren. The Wall Street Journal and Yelp have both now put a name to a consumer trend called grandmacore. Slow cooked, simply made family recipes, food that tastes like somebody who loves you made it. Yelp named it a 2026 dining trend. Rubix Foods found that 44% of consumers would rather a brand improve a familiar favorite than chase a trend. Fellow shareholders, we did not pivot into this. Anna Mancini carried her meatballs and sauce recipe through Ellis Island 105 years ago. For most brands, grandmacore is a marketing stunt. For Mama's, it is our founding principle. So, the current is strong and the playbook we run has not shifted one iota. Cost, controls, culture, and catapult, our four Cs. Starting with our first C, cost. I'm excited to report that thanks to Skip and his team, we officially opened the new expansion of the East Rutherford, New Jersey facility at the end of last month, nearly doubling frozen and refrigerated storage capacity, which will reduce our outside storage costs as well as increase logistics flexibility. In addition, as our associates come back from their Labor Day break, they'll be coming home to a new break room, locker rooms, and training spaces in our signature Mulberry color palette and our values on the wall throughout, thanks to Lauren and her team. Our New York facilities continue to merge and blur, sharing equipment and people across facilities. Our new Walmart launches and recent Sam's launch would not have been possible without the Bay Shore facility and our Bay Shore associates. With the added volume of new items across Walmart, Sam's, Albertsons, and BJ's, the Bay Shore facility continues to steadily improve towards our goal of margins being in line with our East Rutherford and Farmingdale gross margins as promised. Finally, continued improvements in below-the-line direct variable costs continue to be captured as our first half freight, royalties, and commissions percentage is below prior year. This allows our operating margins to show up exactly where it should. Operating expenses fell 160 basis points as a percentage of revenue year over year, and margins improved sequentially off the first quarter. All of this with plenty of room to grow. On gross margin specifically, in June we told you that labor and raw material inefficiencies tied to the startup of new packaging technologies and protein form factors were front loaded investments, not a new normal. The second quarter was the first proof point. Margin improved sequentially to 24.0% from 23.6% while spending more trade in Q2 than in Q1 and spending over $1 million more in high ROI trade versus prior year. We remain firmly on track with our mid- to high 20% corporate gross margin target as those items move fully into steady state. Moving to controls, our second C, I am proud to share that we continue to invest in more data analytics to expand our Power BI efforts, now incorporating AI plugins, thanks to Melissa and Lauren. This is providing faster, more granular, connected information, delivering savings in materials, production efficiencies, and inventory management. Our singular ERP system allows us to provide more visibility to our teams, real-time performance management, and benchmarking across each of our sites. Another great example of our controls is the impactful work that Alberto is doing with his procurement team. Since Alberto has joined, we have completely reimagined our supplier base. We have consolidated in some places and opened the aperture in others. For example, recent changes with our packaging supplier base avoided a 12% increase in materials through vendor diversification and business migration. We've added three new beef suppliers, increasing our quality even further without increasing our costs, sharing the benefit with our customers and end consumers. Another huge benefit Alberto brought to the team is his experience with supply planning. The enhancements he has brought to Mama's is allowing us to add further safety stock levels to our top 10 items, facilitating absorption-based production, reducing our costs while increasing our customer service levels. Now, if that is not a win-win, I'm not sure what is. I will continue to simply repeat what I said last quarter. In an industry where food safety sits at the top of every conversation, the discipline this team demonstrates across all three facilities is nothing short of remarkable and nothing we ever take for granted. Our third C, culture. I'm ecstatic to share that last month, Yun Lee, our first ever Chief People Officer, joined us with over 25 years of experience building and leading high performing organizations. I could not be more excited to partner with Yun and the rest of the people operations team to maintain and enhance the same entrepreneurial passion and spirit that got us to where we are today. With Yun coming on board, we've been able to supercharge our capability building. In Q2, we grew our team and our capabilities by onboarding more than a dozen new operational leaders in functions like food safety and quality assurance, enterprise safety and production management, bringing new capabilities that did not previously exist within the organization and upgrading leadership across critical functions to strengthen the infrastructure required to support continued growth and scale. All these hires bring energy, experience, and renewed engagement throughout our entire organization. I am so proud to add seats at Mama's dinner table and excited to see what our new family members can do. Another great example of culture is the new innovation lab that Chris and his team have built to wow and excite our customers in only a way Mama can. Appropriately and playfully called Mama's Secret Pantry, this is an experiential space that key partners will be invited to, to co-create and collaborate to exceed and excite our consumers. I can't wait to share more about the space and, more importantly, the future wins coming out of this unique experience. We are not here just to win at the prepared foods game. We are truly redefining it. As Abby keeps reminding me, culture is not a destination. It is a mindset that needs love, attention, and reinforcement every single day. And I will say this about the quarter we just had. We raised more than $100 million on the strength of a proven story this team wrote with their own hands. The capital markets did not fund a theory. They funded a successful track record that was written down and codified four years ago by our over 600 associates. And for that, I am truly thankful. Our fourth and final C, catapult. This is where the quarter really showed itself. I am honored to announce that next month we officially launch, for the first time, in banner Kroger. We will start in the Louisville division in over 100 stores with four items, three of which are chicken bottom SKUs. I cannot express how impressed I am with Chris and the sales team. We set an audacious goal, literally three months into Chris's tenure, to get into the top three food retailers in the country. And Chris and his team delivered ahead of schedule. The Board and leadership team keep setting up the pins and Chris and his sales team keep knocking them down. Congrats to the entire team. If that's not enough, we recently heard from Costco that we have been confirmed for a second half multi-vendor mailer, MVM. Their most productive promotion nationwide, across all eight regions. To me, this is much bigger than just more revenue, which is forecasted to be ahead of prior year, but rather a testament and reinforcement of the terrific partnership Scott has built over the past four years. As a reminder, Scott has taken this business from about $0.5 million four years ago to over $25 million last year. Now, that is a partnership. And having all eight regions eagerly sign up tells me that Anna Mancini's recipe is doing just fine west of the Mississippi. But I hope I don't make it seem that there's only one or two customers. In Q2 and upcoming in Q3, we have new placements launching in over a dozen new customers, new and existing. Over a dozen new placements launched in Q2 with more than 60% using chicken bottoms. And coming up in Q3, over 2 dozen new placements have already been approved. That is the one-stop-shop model at work. In Q2, we scaled our marketing efforts while putting our most comprehensive launch support yet behind new distribution. Across our retail media platforms, attributed sales increased nearly 30% versus Q1, while delivering nearly 90 million impressions. Walmart continues to be a standout as we increased our investment behind our expanded assortment, attributed sales were up more than 50% from Q1, while still generating a very healthy double-digit return on ad spend. What excites me most is that we're building a repeatable playbook around our launches. For our seven new Walmart items and our Target beef meatball launch, the team surrounded the distribution with ratings and reviews, PR, retail media, social and influencer support. We generated more than 2.6 million potential impressions through earned media, collecting 225 product reviews to help build trust and conversion, and activating 50 micro-influencers. We also had our biggest presence ever at IDDBA this year, with our largest booth to date and a strong presence across the show floor. We had the opportunity to engage with nearly all of our major customers, not only around the breadth of what we could offer them today, but where we are going next. And for the first time, we shared early stage innovation concepts with customers, giving us the opportunity to bring their input into our innovation pipeline before those ideas ever reached the shelf. And finally, the team isn't limiting marketing to consumer activation. We tested strategically placed outdoor media in key markets in Q2 to excite our existing customers and as well as some prospective holdout customers. If you think FOMO is only afflicting Gregory and Alexander, you have not met the EVPs of some of our customers. Looking to the balance of fiscal '27, our priorities are unchanged. Ramp the new branded introductions across Walmart and Target, keep executing it against our goal of net plus two SKUs in each of our top 10 accounts, pull efficiency, margin, and absorption through the three-plant network as recent launches reach steady state, and now with over $138 million of cash on the balance sheet, put capital to work behind capacity and accretive M&A. Looking forward, the company I see in front of me bears very little resemblance to the one we ran even 12 months ago, 3 plants, a broader and still expanding customer roster, a balance sheet with real firepower, and a team that has demonstrated in practice, not in theory, that it could integrate acquisitions and execute with excellence across the plant. Our line of sight to $1 billion in revenue has never been sharper, and I am convinced in our ability to compound profitable growth well into the future. I'd now like to turn the call over to Anthony Gruber, our Chief Financial Officer, to walk through some key financial details from the second quarter. Anthony Gruber: Thank you, Adam. Moving to the financial results. Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 increased 55% to $54.6 million as compared to $35.2 million in the same year-ago quarter. The increase was primarily due to the ramp of the new branded items we launched with major retailers in the first quarter, item expansion at new and existing customers, and the contribution of the Bay Shore acquisition. Gross profit increased 49.1% to $13.1 million, or 24% of total revenues, in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, as compared to $8.8 million, or 24.9% of total revenues in the same year-ago quarter. Importantly, the prior year did not include Bay Shore as it was prior to the acquisition of the same. Gross margin improved sequentially from 23.6% in the first quarter as the new packaging technologies and protein form factors deployed to support our Q1 launches moved towards steady state production. We remain on track toward our mid to high 20% corporate gross margin target. Operating expenses totaled $10.1 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, as compared to $7.1 million in the same year-ago quarter. As a percentage of revenue, operating expenses declined 160 basis points to 18.5% from 20.1% in the prior year quarter, demonstrating the improved operating leverage in our model as we scale. The change in absolute dollars was primarily attributable to the Bay Shore acquisition. Net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 increased 100.9% to $2.6 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, as compared to net income of $1.3 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, in the same year-ago quarter. Second quarter net income totals 4.7% of revenue as compared to 3.6% in the same year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, increased 68.9% to $5.5 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 as compared to $3.3 million in the same year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 10.1% of revenue from 9.3% a year ago. Turning to the balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents as of July 31, 2026, totaled $138.6 million as compared to $20 million as of January 31, 2026. The increase was primarily driven by $108.6 million of net proceeds from our July common stock offering, together with $11.9 million of cash provided by operating activities during the first six months of the fiscal year. As of July 31, 2026, total debt stood at $4.8 million. This balance sheet, combined with our credit facilities and strong cash flow generation, positions us well to pursue the organic and inorganic growth opportunities that Adam described. This completes my prepared comments. Now before we begin our question and answer session, I'd like to turn the call back to Adam for some closing remarks. Adam? Adam Michaels: Thank you, Anthony. As I turn the page to the balance of fiscal '27, our priorities are consistent. First, we will continue to optimize the integrated three-facility network, pulling efficiency, margin and capacity utilization forward. Second, we will press the accelerator on retail distribution, leaning into the Walmart, Target and now Kroger ramps, while continuing to deepen our partnerships in the Club channel with our upcoming Costco MVM, as well as the new Sam's Club and BJ's launches. And third, we will deploy the big balance sheet we've built to selectively pursue accretive acquisitions that bring incremental capabilities, capacity, or customer access into the platform. The $40 billion deli-prepared foods category is large, still expanding, and remains highly fragmented. The consumer trends, fresher formats, higher quality protein, value-oriented meal solutions, and now a genuine cultural pull towards the food our grandmothers made, continue to break in our direction. Retailers, in turn, want a partner who can simplify the deli prepared meal space, deliver consistently at national scale, and bring real innovation to the case. This is precisely the role Mama's Creations is built to play, and our long-term vision of becoming the leading national one-stop-shop deli solutions provider has never felt more within reach. To our team across all 3 facilities, thank you for the energy, the ownership and the relentless execution. And to our shareholders, including the many of you who joined us in July, thank you for your continued trust in our team. I have never been more convinced that the most exciting chapter of Mama's Creations is the one in front of us. With that, operator, let's open the line for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions]. And your first question comes from Jon Andersen with William Blair. Jon Andersen: Yes, good afternoon everybody. Thanks for the questions. I thought I'd start with I guess your announcement of achieving distribution with I guess kind of the third strategic account you were targeting, Kroger. Could you talk about how you kind of got there with the relationship, what the initial launch looks like, and how you're thinking about maybe the roadmap to building the relationship over time? Adam Michaels: Yes, thanks Jon. Look, as always, a tremendous team effort. Chris has great long-term relationships with Kroger well before him joining Mama's. We speak often about having relationships at the top and then equally at the buyer level is another thing. And then it's another good example of actually some of the work that Lauren and Chris did partner together on from a marketing perspective. We did some creative marketing around the Cincinnati area and it worked out. And again, we've had some conversations. Chris has been talking to them for some time. This is the type of stuff Mama likes, right? Let's start smaller, let's start in one division, let's start strong with the items that are great, right? Our strong meatball items and chicken items that we know that have strong velocities and then slowly, you know, slow and grow. So very excited. Again, you start small and you build out. And, you know, I think Kroger has maybe 13 -- banner Kroger has about, let's call it about 1,300 locations, you know, start with 10% of the business and then work your way up. So really happy, really appreciative of all the work that Chris and the team have done to get here. And again, I think this is something that's really important and it's been the past four years here at Mama's. We tell you what we're going to do and we do it. We started three years ago. We said we'd get in one a year, two years ago we did Walmart, last year with Target, and now with Kroger, again, slow and steady. So yes, very proud of the whole team. Jon Andersen: Yes. Congratulations on that. Kind of sticking with important customers as well for a minute. I wanted to ask about the MVM with Costco in the second half. Is that, I guess that's a new kind of new disclosure. How recently did that kind of come together? And can you size it for us? Like you talked about how that relationship has become a $25 million relationship as of last year, based on the plans that you now have in place for the current year. How does this affect maybe the second half outlook in the Costco business in aggregate? Do we grow it this year in other words? What are any margin considerations that we should take into account as a result of this as well? Adam Michaels: Yes. No, absolutely. Again, another great team effort and just as much, and we all say it as a leadership team, just as much of the great sales work Scott, in this case, has been able to do. You can't do anything without operations and Skip and his whole team making sure that we can actually deliver and exceed expectations is just as important as getting it in. Yes, that we, we are speaking to the Costco team has if not every day, certainly every week. There's constantly rotations that I guess we don't even share all the time because it's constantly happening. The MVM, I don't know if it's technically started yet, but we're in four of the regions right now, and we're not even talking about it. So great relationship, yes. We were voted in as you know, well, there's eight regions, eight regions have to vote on it. And we, we got voted in for all eight regions. Um, I think we're probably in about four regions as we speak. And by next month we'll be in all eight regions. I did share that this rotation is forecasted planned to be bigger than last year, which is great. We'll have to see how things go and how the velocities keep moving. Another thing you know about us is we keep to our margin profiles. And what's really important and, again, another thing that's just wonderful about the Costco partnership is it's not something that -- I know some companies will sell at a loss to get into Costco. That is not us whatsoever, as everybody knows. This is a great win for Costco's end consumers, great for Costco. Velocities keep moving higher and higher, and that's why you're seeing the repeat of the MVM and more and more rotations. So it's a great testament to Scott, the whole team, both sales and operations. Jon Andersen: Great. One more, I'll get in the queue. It feels like, at least relative to, I guess, our estimates for what that's worth, that maybe there was a little bit more OpEx leverage in the model this quarter, a little less on the gross margin line. Are there some decisions, planned decisions you're making there around how you're investing? Maybe moving some marketing dollars into trade based on the desire to support some of the branded launches or am I overreading that we're still kind of progressing as -- progressing as planned. Adam Michaels: No, you are a very good reader, musician and reader all at once. So impressive. No, you're absolutely right. So let's be very specific. We very intentionally moved about $0.5 million. That's a full point of margin out of marketing into trade because we were seeing higher effectiveness and great returns, again, as you're seeing. So you're absolutely right. I could have easily increased gross margin a full point, legitimately, right? $0.5 million, a little more than $0.5 million is about a point of gross margin. Our goal is long term. I know this team and this team knows we have to deliver every 91 days for you guys, but we are building a $1 billion business. And if that means that we're going to invest a little more this quarter, I'll give you another number. We spent more than $1 million. That's two points of margin. We spent over $1 million more in trade this year than we did last year. Again, as long as we see the ROIs, you guys know what gets measured gets improved. We understand the effectiveness of every promotion that we're doing. If it does well, we'll do it again. If it doesn't do well, we're not going to do it. But we are spending more on trade, more than $1 million, more than we did last year because we're seeing the effectiveness and we will continue to invest behind the business to drive higher velocities, to exceed our customers' expectations so we could drive more items into the store, like you're seeing. And, like my boys say, a little bit of FOMO. And Chris is getting a lot of phone calls from customers saying, hey, why don't we have that item? And that's a wonderful thing. Operator: Your next question comes from George Kelly with ROTH Capital Partners. George Kelly: Just to start, I think I heard in your prepared remarks that Sam's Club took an additional item. Did I hear that right? And can you detail, like, what the item was and when it went in? Adam Michaels: Yeah, again, great team effort. Again, this was another great example with partnership with operations. This was a new product for us, a Panko chicken that just went in, I think literally -- I think this week possibly. So it's probably not even through the whole system yet. But yes, excited, breaded chicken breast. As you know full well since you've been with us the whole time, this is a chicken bottom, which you know is critical for us. But yes, really great example. I'll give you another thing that's so special about this product. Yeah, I'll just leave it at great team effort. So really happy with it. So yes, new item just came into Sam's. George Kelly: And it's going in all stores? Adam Michaels: Let me get back to you on that. I forgot to ask Chris that question. The orders are quite nice, so I think so, but let me get back to you on that. I'll get it from Chris, exactly how many stores. George Kelly: Okay, sounds good. And then next question on Walmart. Just hoping you could update us on number of stores and how the velocities are progressing and just any kind of update on what you're seeing at Walmart and maybe if there's products that are working especially well or not working as well. All that would be helpful. Adam Michaels: Really happy for how things are going. I think we -- I looked the last time, and we're now over 2,300 stores. So I think when we first started, I think we said around 2,000. So I think we're now north of 2,300 stores. So definitely getting more stores, definitely seeing greater velocities. Good or bad, the grilled chicken is just exceptional, and that is always the winner. And we're seeing velocities literally go up every week. It's crazy that we could see this. There's some items that are not doing as well. My wife taught me I'm supposed to love all my children equally. We have a sausage and peppers in the store. We have a meatloaf in the store. Chris and I discussed. We always know that at some point we want to take some items out, proactively actually, and bring in items with higher velocities. Those items tend to see a little lower velocity than our beef meatballs and cheese stuffed chicken meatballs. So we definitely see all, actually we have nine items in there. Chris and I -- Chris speaks with his team all the time looking at it, and I promise you we are very proactive. It's not going to be Walmart that says, let's take this item out. It's going to be our team that says, hey, Walmart, I'm seeing -- I have this better item for you. Why don't I just pop this one in, take this other one out? So we're looking at that every week. Operator: Your next question comes from Ben Klieve with StoneX. Benjamin Klieve: Congratulations on a good quarter here. You talked about the flexibility you have with your balance sheet now for M&A ambitions, and I'm wondering if you can elaborate on this a little bit. I'm wondering, first of all, the degree to which the kind of smaller opportunities that you had been historically pursuing are just less enticing to you now that you have more flexibility. And then also can you kind of distinguish between the characteristics of some of the smaller operations that you were looking at versus the more transformative ones both in terms of the quality of the operations and the multiples that you have to pay. Adam Michaels: That's a lot, Ben. Thank you. So, yes, I think we understand, we've done this a number of times as a team here between the Chef Inspirational, Creative Salads, Crown, and obviously I've done one or two or more before coming here. Integration takes work, takes effort. And quite honestly, just it probably just doesn't make sense to buy a $25 million revenue company anymore. The great news is there's also lots of benefits to that, right? Because some of the bigger companies have more capabilities. Remember, for us, it has nothing to do with revenue. It's all about capabilities. It's all about getting new customers. It's all about bringing in great culture with our people. And yeah, what is wonderful about this last raise and I've shared it when we did the raise, there were a couple companies that we were looking at that they said, yeah, sure, Adam. This is the grown-up table here next time. And by having the raise and everyone sees it, we get a call back. Actually, I was sort of just joking. I would love to talk to you. So I think it has brought us to a different place. The conversations that we have had, I will tell you, as great as -- Chris is doing in sales and Skip's doing in operations, and Anthony and Lauren and the whole team, I'm keeping them busy. I took Chris and Skip on a bit of a vacation over the past couple weeks for a couple tours of places. We're getting busy, which is wonderful. It's what we should be doing. But, yes, it has to be meaningful. It takes a lot of time for us to do the diligence. It takes a lot of time. So it just doesn't make sense to buy, and I'm making up what that number is, but that $25 million company is just too small. So we're looking a little bigger, but obviously anyone that knows me knows that -- just like how we manage our money, just how we look at multiples. It doesn't matter how much money we have. We are as diligent as we were when we actually had no money -- sorry we had negative $15 million of debt when I -- when Anthony and I first started. Benjamin Klieve: Very good. That's helpful to hear that perspective. Very good. Well, congratulations again on a great quarter and having a seat at the grown-up table, as you say. Adam Michaels: And just before the next one, since Chris is an overachiever, George, we're starting with 300 clubs with the Sam's breaded chicken. Operator: Your next question comes from Ryan Meyers with Lake Street Capital. Ryan Meyers: Congrats on another strong quarter. I wonder if you could just talk about what needs to happen in the back half of the year to trend toward that mid to high 20s gross margin target, maybe the kind of high 20s. What you would need to see to get closer to that as we exit the year? Adam Michaels: Yes, I mean, look, I think, and I like that it's consistent. There's really three things that, and again, I hope we can all agree that 24%, never enough for me, but 24% is mid to high 20s. There's three things that placed us at that 24% this quarter. The first one we mentioned earlier, right? We are investing in trade. We were very intentional to take $0.5 million of marketing and put it into trade. That's a point of margin. The biggest one, which we've been talking about for some time now, is we need to keep selling the bottoms, right? I just told you three of the four items at Kroger are chicken bottoms. The new Sam's items, chicken bottoms, I could go on forever. It's a great problem to have. Chris and team are just too good at selling the tops. The portion chicken is just exceptional and we just need to, as a percentage, just sell more and more of the bottoms. That's going to allow us to trim more. Operationally, we could trim. Skip and team could trim all day long, but we have to sell a higher percentage of the bottoms because we said a day of trimming, if there's five days in a week, a day of trimming is about a point of margin. We're probably still in that one to two days of trimming, which to me says that there's two to three more points we can get. We could just increase the percentage, not the absolute money, the absolute. We've added, I think we added more than $10 million of chicken bottom sales versus last year, which is an incredible job. It's the percentage that we need to have, and that two to three points. And then I think the third, I'm so proud of the Bay Shore team. We are moving really nicely, probably ahead of where Anthony and I had planned. I love what the Bay Shore team's doing. They're still probably, I'll make up a number roughly of a point of margin there to get that up to the corporate average. So right then and there, that's what, four to five points, right? One, two to three, and one. So that's four to five points. That says that we're 28%, 29%. We need nothing special. We need nothing. We don't have to cure any major diseases. These are blocking and tackling things that if we can do right, we're absolutely there to do it. So hopefully that adds some color as to how the leadership team thinks about and makes trade-offs, right? So the trade, we make trade-offs. One thing that's great that Chris is doing now and makes you feel good that we could continue to trim, we could continue to sell more of the bottoms is we actually accidentally forget to bring the portion chicken when Chris pitches it, right? When we have tastings and cuttings, we accidentally forget the portions. Everyone knows about it. Like, literally Chris sells stuff sight unseen. That's how amazing that is. But we are trying to do things. Another thing that Chris and team do is if we, if you want the portion chicken, you have to at least buy chicken strips or you have to buy chicken meatballs, or you have to buy MFOs with chicken or you have to buy the shredded chicken. Again, we have a great, Lauren helps lead our NPD process. We have tons of chicken bottom items. That's another great thing that Chris and team do to increase the likelihood that we could continue to increase the chicken bottom percentage. Ryan Meyers: Got it. That's helpful. And then just lastly, as we think about the momentum across the business and the new placements you're expecting in Q3, how should we think about the growth rate in the third quarter and the fourth quarter? Obviously, we're now lapping the Crown acquisition for the first time in a couple of quarters. So any commentary you can give us on how you're thinking about revenue growth. I mean, I know you've talked in the past that you're comfortable with double digits. Does that still apply? Just any commentary would be helpful. Adam Michaels: Yes, I'm not going to move off that. And again, I think we're, I don't know, I think, 17 on over-delivering our revenue targets. But look, double-digit, I hope you guys see from whether the Kroger stuff, whether the Sam's stuff, actually, just all the stuff that we already have. Walmart is still, we're not even in our first full year of all the Walmart items. I hope everyone feels, and we feel internally -- this makes us very confident that we could achieve that double digit growth. And what's important, more important than any revenue growth, is profitable growth. And you guys know that about me as well. So we're still doing cleaning of our portfolio. There's still more stuff within possibly the Bay Shore portfolio, but every day, every quarter, this is something that Chris and Skip look at to drive more efficiency in our processes. And if that means losing a little bit of less profitable revenue so we can have a more profitable business. We hold hands together and we make the right decisions. So it's profitable growth, increasingly profitable growth, that is the important question and the important thing that we focus on. Ryan Meyers: That's great to hear and congrats on the continued progress. Operator: Your next question comes from Eric Des Lauriers with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Eric Des Lauriers: Congrats on another strong quarter here and all the continued momentum on these product wins. My first question here is kind of going back to the gross margin outlook. Obviously, chicken bottoms are a big driver of that. You mentioned 60% of the Q2 product placements use chicken bottoms. How should we think about the mix of these two dozen new product placements for Q3? How do you think about the mix of chicken bottoms for those? Adam Michaels: So again, what's wonderful is much of it is the chicken bottoms. It's something we focus on. I shared the Q2 numbers. We have to see how Q3 goes. It's also the volume. So one thing that I will, that -- not that we get challenged, but we have to see how it does. It's up to the end consumer, right? So Chris and team make sure that we are selling more bottom items in than top items, right, that we know. What we don't know is the velocity of those items and which one's going to sell more than the others. What has been happening, and again, such a horrible problem that I believe every publicly traded company wants, every company wants, the portion chicken, even though that's one versus the four bottom items, the velocities of that portion chicken item just moves at a lot faster pace. And that's where we run into the "challenge" of the chicken bottom percentages not growing as fast as the portion. So we are doing our job. We are, like I just mentioned, we don't sell in a top if the bottom doesn't come with it. But we have to see how the items land from a velocity perspective. I'm optimistic, I feel good. Obviously the leadership team, we know all the items that we're getting in. I'm optimistic that we could continue to increase the percentage of the bottoms, which will lead to, again, if I could just get one more percent right, one more day of trimming that gives me one more gross margin percent, which obviously would be really helpful. Another point I know, because Bay Shore keeps getting better, I think we're going to be in exactly the position we expected to be a year ago. I think we're going to get one more at Bay Shore and okay. So now that 24 is 25 and 26 and we feel good that just like we sequentially improved versus last quarter. I feel good that we will sequentially improve in Q3 versus Q2. Eric Des Lauriers: On Costco, congrats here. That sounds like quite the win. So you mentioned you expect it to be larger from revenue perspective year-over-year. You also mentioned that it's already started, at least in some of the -- some of the regions. If I recall, I think last year's was just around the holiday season, so a bit shorter here. Can you just comment on maybe the scope of this MVM compared to when you had last year whether that's a number of weeks or number of items? Just any additional color there would be great. Adam Michaels: Yeah, it's going to be roughly the same time. Actually I think it's a little longer. I don't remember starting this early last time. And the other thing that's really important, and I do, I want everyone to be proud of the MVM. I want everyone to be excited. I think the MVM's going to be actually at the same time as last year, the last two weeks of December or the beginning of January. I know everyone likes to see it in the print, mailer, you're going to see that. What I see, but what's important is, the business is so integrated now. Like I just told you, we're doing rotations before the MVM even starts. So I feel really good. Again, we mentioned from an MVM perspective, the order, the intention from Costco is that this is actually going to be bigger. We're already getting orders in. It is going to be bigger than last year. I think it's going to be a little longer, right? I don't remember it starting this early last year, but, what's really important is this is continuing to strengthen the relationship. It stays in longer, right? That's what -- if you remember what happened last time, the "MVM" was supposed to end in January and some regions "forgot" and they just kept buying into February. That's what we're looking to do. Just like we spoke about last time. So we are an everyday item now in the Northeast. It doesn't come out. The MVM will, because of the promotion, there definitely will be more volume, but we're there every day. Same thing with the San Diego region. Try to make my parents happy. It's already in the Southeast now. So that's what's really important for it. Eric Des Lauriers: Certainly, encouraging on all fronts on Costco. Congrats again. Operator: Your next question comes from Matt Curtis with D.A. Davidson. Matthew Curtis: I just had a question on Bay Shore for starters. Could you bring us up to speed on where Bay Shore's gross margin stands today relative to the other facilities. And I guess to ask it another way, how much of the original margin gap has been closed at this point? Adam Michaels: Yes, so we don't have business P&Ls. So much of the stuff, and I think I mentioned earlier, the legacy Walmart stuff, we're actually doing in Bay Shore now and vice versa. Actually the Shaw's shredded chicken, we're doing in Bay Shore. So we don't have, kind of, line item. We run the business as one business. What we're seeing and why we're feeling confident is the absorption. So what was really big when we started was the Bay Shore facility was a big facility. It was twice as large, or it still is, twice as large as our other facilities, and didn't have the volume. What's been wonderful, thanks to our sales team, is we have filled up the Bay Shore facility with more volume, which is lowering as you understand the overheads percentage. The other thing that's happening is the Bay Shore legacy Crown items, thanks to Alberto, the procurement team, we've gotten significant savings on beef and on chicken and on other ingredients. So the so what is, I believe, we're -- when I speak to you guys next quarter, that -- there, we won't see any of that. Again, more the word, like the words I said, the blurring, it's going to look one and the same. So, directionally that's how we're able to figure out what where the margins are in the legacy facility. Matthew Curtis: So I guess maybe to ask a related question, at this point, how much unused capacity do you still have at Bay Shore after supporting some of the recent launches that you talked about. Adam Michaels: So we certainly still have lots of capacity there. We're not working seven days a week in all parts of the facility. We're not working actually 24 hours in all parts of the facility. So there's definitely a lot more room. It's a function of the items that we sell in and what we do with them. So I still feel very good. Look, we're growing, which is great, but I'll stick to what I said last time and nothing's really changed. We could pretty much double our business from last year with the current facilities we're in. The other one that I don't want to forget, and everyone's always welcome to come in. I really love, I got some good pictures for you. We are opening up. I mentioned, thanks to Shane and team. We doubled our East Rutherford facility this quarter. So a lot more cold storage, freezer storage, something I'm so proud of, a lot more room for our associates. So we have training rooms now. I'm so excited, Yun and Abby and team. We're doing trainings. A much bigger cafeteria, walls of microwaves, so we definitely have a lot more room. What we have to keep doing is using it more efficiently. That is the key. So we just brought in two new Proseal machines. So we have automated, again, for many folks that have started, if you guys have taken tours with me, in our Farmingdale facility, we used to use pretty much hand sealers to seal, I'll give you an example, something like the Walmart chicken that we do. We literally used almost hand sealers, this machine, it was -- sorry, let's call it a tabletop machine. We brought this Proseal machine in. It's amazing. Literally Milton and Lenny, we literally get done what we used to be able to get done for a day. By noon, we have it done. So it's not about the physical space. We have to continue to bring more automation in and use the space we have more efficiently, but I'm not -- we have room to grow. I'm not worried about that quite yet. Operator: Your next question comes from Nick Sherwood with Maxim Group. Nicholas Sherwood: So seafood seems like it's a pretty important part of the prepared meals categories. How much of a priority are you putting on adding seafood capabilities when you're evaluating M&A options? And what do you see as some of the challenges of, kind of, integrating a product that would have a very different procurement and production infrastructure. Adam Michaels: And for a guy who likes seafood, I'd like that very much. So there are a couple of things we have to do. First, what's wonderful, actually, Bay Shore used to make seafood products. So they have some of the capabilities and obviously the know-how. It's not that easy in the sense that I'm sure, and I'm speaking at a turn here, but we need different HACCP plans, USDA, approvals to get it back. But first of all we have plenty of room to run. Remember, $40 billion category, as great as we're doing with beef and chicken and vegetables, Chris would be the first one to tell you that we still have tons of room to grow. But it's also, maybe that's an M&A opportunity. Maybe there's special equipment, there's special handling, there's a company that I'm speaking to now that I know, I've seen. They have seafood items, so maybe it's an M&A approach. But it's absolutely something that should make all of our investors feel good that, wow, these guys are doing this well, and they're missing an entire segment, right, in seafood. And when we are $1 billion, I have no doubts that there will be a seafood element to it. Nicholas Sherwood: I appreciate the detail. And then I noticed that you had expanded placements at Sheetz. Can you kind of talk about how the opportunity and the convenience channel has progressed? Adam Michaels: Yes, no, it's -- so actually I'll tell you, so yes, we got some new stuff in the Sheetz. I think have some new paninis coming in and some new wraps, but the C-Stores is still one and Chris and I speak about it. That's one that I would have said a couple years ago it would have been easier. We have the right partners, right? We have a distributor partners. We now have the right portfolio of items. We have these paninis are doing exceptionally well. We actually made smaller paninis now, so it's a better price point in addition to the ones that we have. I told you about these wraps. I will still believe the meatballs in a cup solution somehow will come around for us. So we have the right third-party partners with distributors. We have the right portfolio. And again, the team will keep trying. But, yeah, we're in some places, but there's still a lot of opportunity. Operator: And at this point, we have no further questions, so I'll hand the floor back to Adam Michaels for closing remarks. Adam Michaels: Thank you, operator, and thank you again to each of you for joining us today. To close, the second quarter of fiscal '27 delivered on the promise we made in June. Revenue up 55%, net income up 101%, adjusted EBITDA up 69%, operating expenses down 160 basis points. Our first ever win at Kroger, another even bigger Costco MVM, and much, much more. All with a balance sheet carrying $138.6 million in cash. This is the output of the four C's operating system at work. The macro tailwinds in deli-prepared continue. Our three-facility network is humming. Our balance sheet is built for accretive M&A, and our team is executing with real conviction. The course we have charted towards national deli leadership is set, and our commitment to that destination is unwavering. As always, we appreciate our shareholders' continued support, and we look forward to updating you on our progress in the quarters ahead. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you all for your participation. Before you buy stock in Mama's Creations, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Mama's Creations wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $414,015!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,385,459!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 960% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 213% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of September 9, 2026. This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Mama's Creations (MAMA) Q2 2027 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Mama's Creations, Inc. MAMA reported second-quarter fiscal 2027 results, wherein both top and bottom lines beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate and increased year over year. Mama’s Creations posted quarterly earnings of 6 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 5 cents. The metric increased 100% from 3 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Mama's Creations, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Mama's Creations, Inc. Quote The company reported total revenues of $54.6 million, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $53 million. The metric rose 55% year over year. Growth reflected new branded-item ramps, broader customer penetration and the Bay Shore acquisition. Gross profit increased 49.1% year over year to $13.1 million. Gross margin was 24%, down from 24.9% a year ago but up from 23.6% in the prior quarter as new packaging technologies and protein form factors deployed for first-quarter product launches moved toward steady-state production. The result came despite $1 million more in trade spending than a year ago. The company said it remains on track toward the mid-to-high-20% corporate gross-margin target.Operating expenses totaled $10.1 million compared with $7.1 million in the prior-year quarter, with the increase in absolute dollars primarily tied to the Bay Shore acquisition. However, operating expenses fell 160 basis points as a percentage of revenues to 18.5% from 20.1%.Adjusted EBITDA advanced 68.9% to $5.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 10.1% from 9.3%. Cash and cash equivalents reached $138.6 million as of July 31, 2026, compared with $20 million at Jan. 31, 2026. Total debt stood at $4.8 million. Operating activities generated $11.9 million of cash during the first six months of fiscal 2027.This Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) stock has fallen 15.4% in the past month against the industry’s growth of 2.5%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. CHEF distributes specialty food and center-of-the-plate products in the United States, the Middle East and Canada. At present, CHEF flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.The consensus estimate for Chefs' Warehouse’s current fiscal-year sales and earnings implies growth of 10.6% and 33.7%, respectively, from the year-ago reported figures. Chefs' Warehouse delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 30.4%, on average.The Vita Coco Company, Inc. COCO develops, manufactures, markets and distributes coconut water products under the Vita Coco brand name in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific. COCO currently sports a Zacks Rank #1. The company delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 21.9%, on average.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Vita Coco’s current fiscal-year sales and earnings indicates growth of 31.6% and 64.7%, respectively, from the year-ago reported numbers. Darling Ingredients Inc. DAR develops, produces and sells sustainable natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients in North America, Europe, China, South America and internationally. At present, Darling Ingredients holds a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). DAR delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 38.9%, on average. The consensus estimate for Darling Ingredients’ current fiscal-year sales and earnings implies growth of 11.5% and 926.5%, respectively, from the year-ago figures. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Mama's Creations, Inc. (MAMA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Vita Coco Company, Inc. (COCO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Darling Ingredients Inc. (DAR) : Free Stock Analysis Report The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. (CHEF) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Achieved a step-change quarter with 55% revenue growth, driven by the successful ramp of new branded items at Walmart and Target alongside the Bay Shore acquisition contribution. Demonstrated significant operating leverage as bottom-line metrics grew faster than revenue, with operating expenses declining 160 basis points as a percentage of sales. Sequentially improved gross margins to 24.0% as Q1 product launches transitioned from front-loaded investment phases into steady-state production efficiencies. Capitalized on the 'grandmacore' consumer trend and the shift from restaurants to ready-to-eat grocery meals, which McKinsey identifies as a top industry theme. Transformed the corporate M&A profile following a successful equity offering, shifting from balance-sheet-constrained deals to pursuing larger, accretive acquisitions from a position of strength. Optimized the three-facility network by sharing equipment and personnel across sites, while nearly doubling storage capacity at the East Rutherford facility to reduce external logistics costs. Reimagined the supplier base through vendor diversification, successfully avoiding a 12% increase in packaging material costs despite inflationary pressures. Reiterated a mid-to-high 20% corporate gross margin target, contingent on increasing the sales mix of 'chicken bottoms' The company is increasing its use of chicken bottoms, which accounted for three of the four items in the Kroger launch and over 60% of new placements in Q2.. Anticipates continued sequential margin improvement in Q3 as Bay Shore facility margins move toward the corporate average and new automation technologies scale. Prioritizing 'net plus two' SKU expansion across top 10 accounts, supported by a repeatable marketing playbook involving retail media and micro-influencer activation. Actively evaluating larger M&A targets (exceeding $25 million in revenue) that offer incremental capabilities, capacity, or new customer access rather than just scale. Maintaining a long-term strategic line of sight to $1 billion in revenue, supported by a balance sheet with $138.6 million in cash and virtually no debt. Announced a milestone entry into banner Kroger starting in the Louisville division, marking the achievement of a goal to partner with the top three U.S. food retailers. Confirmed a second-half multi-vendor mailer (MVM) with Costco across all eight regions, which is forecasted to be larger in volume than the prior year's promotion. Invested over $1 million more in high-ROI trade promotions compared to the prior year, intentionally shifting $0.5 million from marketing to trade to drive higher velocity. Appointed the company's first Chief People Officer to lead high-performing organization building and supercharge operational leadership capabilities. Management plans a 'slow and grow' approach, starting with over 100 stores (roughly 10% of the banner) using high-velocity meatball and chicken items. The relationship was secured through a combination of long-term executive relationships and targeted marketing in the Cincinnati area. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Management explicitly traded approximately 100 basis points of gross margin to fund higher-effectiveness trade promotions that drive retail velocity. The strategy prioritizes building a $1 billion business through long-term volume gains over maximizing immediate 91-day margin prints. The company is moving away from smaller $25 million revenue acquisitions due to the high integration effort required relative to the impact. The new cash position has opened doors to 'grown-up table' conversations with larger targets that previously viewed the company as too small. While 60% of new placements use chicken bottoms, the high velocity of 'top' items (breasts) makes shifting the total percentage mix challenging. Management is now requiring customers to take 'bottom' items (strips, meatballs) as a condition for receiving high-demand 'top' items to protect margins. Current facilities can support roughly double the previous year's business volume through increased shifts and automation rather than physical expansion. New Proseal automation has already increased throughput significantly, completing a full day's manual work by noon.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Revenue: $54.6 million, a 55% increase year-over-year. Gross Profit: $13.1 million, or 24% of revenue, up 49.1% year-over-year. Gross Margin: Improved sequentially to 24.0% from 23.6% in Q1. Operating Expenses: $10.1 million, down 160 basis points as a percentage of revenue to 18.5%. Net Income: $2.6 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, up 100.9% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA: $5.5 million, up 68.9% year-over-year, with margin expanding to 10.1% of revenue. Cash and Cash Equivalents: $138.6 million as of July 31, 2026, up from $20 million at the start of the fiscal year. Total Debt: $4.8 million as of July 31, 2026. Cash Provided by Operating Activities: $11.9 million during the first six months of fiscal 2027. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Signs with MAMA. Is MAMA fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: September 03, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Revenue surged 55% year-over-year to $54.6 million, with net income more than doubling to $2.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA expanded 69% to $5.5 million, with margins improving to 10.1% from 9.3% a year ago. Gross margin improved sequentially to 24.0% from 23.6%, driven by new product launches moving into steady-state production. Closed the quarter with a robust cash position of $138.6 million and minimal debt, providing significant firepower for accretive M&A. Secured major new distribution wins, including a first-ever launch at Kroger (100+ stores) and a confirmed Costco multi-vendor mailer across all eight regions. Operating expenses declined 160 basis points as a percentage of revenue, demonstrating strong operating leverage. Expanded the East Rutherford facility, doubling frozen and refrigerated storage capacity to reduce outside storage costs and increase logistics flexibility. Gross margin declined year-over-year to 24.0% from 24.9%, impacted by investments in trade spending and ongoing inefficiencies at the Bay Shore facility. The company intentionally shifted $0.5 million from marketing to trade, which temporarily pressured gross margin by a full point. Bay Shore facility margins remain approximately one point below the corporate average, though improving. The product mix is skewed toward lower-margin 'portion chicken' items, which sell at higher velocities and dilute the overall margin contribution from higher-margin 'chicken bottoms'. The company is still in the early stages of ramping new branded items at Walmart and Target, with some items like sausage and peppers and meatloaf underperforming. Management noted that the company is still operating with one to two days of trimming per week, indicating there is still significant operational inefficiency to address. Q: Can you discuss the initial launch with Kroger, how you got there, and the roadmap for building the relationship over time? A: Adam Michaels (Chairman & CEO): The win was a team effort, leveraging Chris' pre-existing relationships with Kroger and creative marketing in the Cincinnati area. The strategy is to start small in one division (Louisville) with over 100 stores and four high-velocity items (three being chicken bottoms), prove the concept, and then expand. This follows the company's "slow and grow" playbook, similar to how it entered Walmart and Target, with the goal of expanding to Kroger's ~1,300 locations over time. Q: Regarding the Costco MVM (multi-vendor mailer) in the second half, how did it come together, and what are the revenue and margin implications for the Costco business? A: Adam Michaels (Chairman & CEO): The MVM is a testament to the strong partnership built over four years. All eight Costco regions voted to participate, and the program is expected to be larger and start earlier than last year's. The company is already running rotations in about four regions, with the goal of becoming an everyday item in more regions. Management confirms the program will be bigger than the prior year and maintains its margin profile discipline. Q: It seems there was more OPEX leverage this quarter but less on the gross margin line. Are you making planned decisions to invest in trade over marketing? A: Adam Michaels (Chairman & CEO): Yes, the company intentionally moved about $0.5 million (a full point of margin) from marketing into trade due to higher effectiveness and returns. In total, the company spent over $1 million more on high-ROI trade versus the prior year. While this temporarily impacts gross margin, the strategy is to invest in driving higher velocities and exceeding customer expectations to secure more items in stores, building a $1 billion business for the long term. Q: Can you provide an update on the Walmart launch, including store count and product velocity performance? A: Adam Michaels (Chairman & CEO): The launch is progressing well, with distribution now exceeding 2,300 stores. The grilled chicken item is the standout performer with velocities increasing weekly. While some items like sausage and peppers and meatloaf have lower velocities, the team is being proactive in managing the assortment, planning to replace underperformers with higher-velocity items before the retailer suggests it. Q: With the new balance sheet strength, how has your M&A strategy changed, and what characteristics are you looking for in targets? A: Adam Michaels (Chairman & CEO): The company is now targeting larger, more meaningful acquisitions, as smaller deals (e.g., $25 million revenue) no longer justify the time and effort of integration. The focus remains on acquiring capabilities, new customers, and great culture rather than just revenue. The recent capital raise has opened doors to new conversations, but the company remains disciplined on valuation and multiples, just as it was when it had no money. Q: What needs to happen in the back half of the year to trend toward the mid-to-high 20s gross margin target? A: Adam Michaels (Chairman & CEO): There are three key levers: 1) Continuing to increase the percentage of sales from higher-margin chicken bottom items (currently the team is selling too many "tops" like portion chicken, which requires more trimming labor); 2) Continued operational improvements at the Bay Shore facility, which is still about a point of margin below the corporate average; and 3) The intentional investment in trade, which costs about a point of margin. By executing on these blocking-and-tackling items, the company sees a clear path to 28-29% gross margins. Q: How should we think about the revenue growth rate in Q3 and Q4, given you are now lapping the Bay Shore acquisition? A: Adam Michaels (Chairman & CEO): The company remains confident in achieving double-digit revenue growth, driven by the Kroger launch, Sam's Club expansion, and continued momentum at Walmart. More importantly, the focus is on profitable growth, and the team will continue to prune less profitable revenue from the portfolio to drive efficiency and improve the overall margin profile. Q: Can you bring us up to speed on Bay Shore's gross margin relative to other facilities and how much of the gap has been closed? A: Adam Michaels (Chairman & CEO): The company runs as one integrated business, so it doesn't track facility-level P&Ls. However, Bay Shore's margins are improving due to increased volume absorption (filling the large facility) and significant procurement savings on beef, chicken, and other ingredients. The company expects the margin gap to be fully closed by the next quarter as the operations continue to "blur" together. Q: How much unused capacity do you have to support future growth? A: Adam Michaels (Chairman & CEO): The company still has significant capacity and could nearly double its business with current facilities. The key is using the space more efficiently through automation, such as the new ProSeal machines that have dramatically increased production speed. The company also recently doubled its cold and frozen storage capacity at the East Rutherford facility to support logistics flexibility. Q: How much of a priority is adding seafood capabilities through M&A, and what are the challenges? A: Adam Michaels (Chairman & CEO): Seafood is a missing segment in the portfolio, but it requires different HACCP and USDA plans and special handling. While Bay Shore has some legacy seafood capabilities, the company is more likely to pursue this through an M&A opportunity that brings special equipment and know-how. It is a long-term goal as the company builds toward $1 billion in revenue. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Interested in Mama's Creations, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Strong financial growth: Fiscal Q2 revenue rose 55% to $54.6 million, while net income more than doubled to $2.6 million and adjusted EBITDA increased 68.9% to $5.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 10.1% from 9.3%. Retail expansion is accelerating: Mama’s launched or secured new placements with Kroger, Costco, Sam’s Club, Albertsons and BJ’s, while its products reached more than 2,300 Walmart stores. Chicken-bottom products accounted for more than 60% of new second-quarter placements. Capacity and acquisition flexibility improved: Bay Shore still has significant available capacity, East Rutherford storage expansion is expected to reduce logistics costs, and the company ended the period with $138.6 million in cash and just $4.8 million in debt to support potential strategic acquisitions. MAMA Says a Fresh High Could Come Before Mid-Year Mama's Creations (NASDAQ:MAMA) reported fiscal second-quarter revenue growth of 55% and said expanded retail distribution, contributions from the Bay Shore acquisition and new product launches helped drive operating leverage and higher profitability. For the quarter, revenue increased to $54.6 million from $35.2 million a year earlier. Net income more than doubled to $2.6 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, from $1.3 million, or $0.03 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, rose 68.9% to $5.5 million, while adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 10.1% from 9.3% in the prior-year quarter. → Boarding Call: EHang Secures First-Mover Altitude Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Adam O'Michaels said the results reflected the company's strategy of investing in product launches before realizing greater scale and leverage. “Every single bottom-line metric grew faster than revenue,” O'Michaels said, citing income from operations, adjusted EBITDA and net income. Gross profit rose 49.1% to $13.1 million. Gross margin was 24.0%, compared with 24.9% in the year-ago period but up from 23.6% in the fiscal first quarter. Chief Financial Officer Anthony Gruber said the sequential improvement reflected new packaging technologies and protein form factors moving toward steady-state production following first-quarter launches. → Medtronic’s Stars Are Aligning for a Price Recovery Management said it continues to target corporate gross margins in the mid- to high-20% range. O'Michaels said progress toward that goal will depend in part on increasing sales of chicken “bottom” products, which allow the company to use more of its chicken inputs and reduce trimming costs, as well as further improvement at the Bay Shore facility. Operating expenses rose in dollars to $10.1 million from $7.1 million, largely due to the Bay Shore acquisition, but declined as a percentage of revenue. Operating expenses represented 18.5% of revenue, down 160 basis points from 20.1% a year earlier. → Dutch Bros Sell-Off Creates a Growth Opportunity During the question-and-answer session, O'Michaels said the company intentionally shifted about $500,000 of marketing spending into trade promotions during the quarter because it was seeing stronger returns. He said Mama's spent more than $1 million more on trade activity than it did in the prior-year period. Mama's announced its first launch with Kroger, beginning next month in the retailer's Louisville division. The initial rollout will cover more than 100 stores and include four products, including three chicken-bottom stock-keeping units. O'Michaels said the company plans to begin in one division and expand over time if product performance supports additional distribution. The company also said it was approved for Costco's second-half multi-vendor mailer promotion across all eight U.S. regions. O'Michaels said the promotion is forecast to be larger than the prior-year program and is expected to run around the last two weeks of December or early January, although Costco rotations had already begun in several regions. At Sam's Club, Mama's recently launched a breaded panko chicken breast product in 300 clubs, O'Michaels said. The company also cited new launches or placements at Albertsons, BJ's and more than a dozen other customers. More than 60% of new placements launched during the second quarter used chicken-bottom products, according to management. Walmart remained a key growth driver. O'Michaels said Mama's products are now in more than 2,300 Walmart stores, above the approximately 2,000 stores initially discussed for the rollout. He said grilled chicken products were performing particularly well, while sausage and peppers and meatloaf were showing lower velocities than beef meatballs and cheese-stuffed chicken meatballs. The company said it is reviewing the assortment proactively and may replace slower-moving products with higher-velocity items. Management said the Bay Shore facility was instrumental in supporting recent Walmart and Sam's Club launches. O'Michaels said the site is improving toward gross-margin levels achieved at Mama's East Rutherford and Farmingdale operations as volume increases and fixed costs are absorbed over more production. The company said it still has available capacity at Bay Shore, which is not operating seven days a week or around the clock in all areas. O'Michaels said Mama's could “pretty much double” its business from the prior year using its existing facilities, though he emphasized that product mix and automation will affect capacity utilization. Mama's also completed an expansion at its East Rutherford, New Jersey, site that nearly doubled frozen and refrigerated storage capacity. The company expects the expansion to lower outside storage costs and improve logistics flexibility. It has added two Proseal machines to increase production efficiency, according to O'Michaels. On procurement, management said supplier diversification avoided a potential 12% materials increase for packaging. The company also added three beef suppliers and said changes to supply planning are supporting additional safety-stock levels for its top products. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $138.6 million as of July 31, up from $20 million at the end of fiscal 2026. Gruber said the increase was primarily driven by $108.6 million of net proceeds from a July common-stock offering and $11.9 million of operating cash flow generated during the first six months of the fiscal year. Total debt stood at $4.8 million. O'Michaels said the larger cash balance and low debt give Mama's greater flexibility to pursue acquisitions that add capacity, capabilities or customer access. He said the company is less interested in acquisitions of approximately $25 million in revenue than it may have been previously, given the work required to integrate a business, but stressed that management will remain disciplined on valuation and strategic fit. The company also said it sees seafood as a potential longer-term opportunity, either through internal capabilities or acquisitions, though O'Michaels said Mama's has substantial room to expand its existing beef, chicken and vegetable offerings. Mama's Creations, Inc engages in the marketing, manufacturing, and distribution of beef meatballs with sauce, turkey meatballs with sauce, beef meat loaf, sausage and peppers, chicken parmesan, and other similar meats and sauces. Its products include beef meatballs, turkey meatballs, stuffed meatballs, lasagna roll ups, retail ready meals, bulk deli, single-size pasta bowls, and packaged refrigerated products. Its brands include MamaMancini's, Creative Salads, and The Olive Branch. The company was founded by Daniel Dougherty on July 22, 2009 and is headquartered in East Rutherford, NJ. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Mama's Creations Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for September 2026.

Second Quarter Revenue Grows 55% to $54.6 Million; Net Income Increases 101% to $2.6 Million with Adjusted EBITDA Up 69% to $5.5 Million; Cash Position Grows to $138.6 Million EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, Sept. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mama’s Creations, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAMA), a leading national marketer, manufacturer and distributor of fresh deli prepared foods, has reported its financial results for the second quarter ended July 31, 2026. Financial Summary: Second Quarter Fiscal 2027 & Subsequent Operational Highlights: Launched over a dozen new placements during the second quarter — more than 60% using chicken bottoms — the majority of which were cross-sells that brought products from the Company’s expanded brand family into banners Mama’s already serves, including Publix, Winn-Dixie, Albertsons and Shaw’s. Selected for Costco second half multi-vendor mailer (MVM) — the retailer’s most productive promotional vehicle — across all eight regions nationally. Mama’s Costco business has grown from approximately $0.5 million four years ago to over $25 million last fiscal year. Approved over two dozen new placements for third quarter delivery — headlined by the Company’s first-ever planned launch in banner Kroger, beginning with four items in over 100 stores across the Louisville division, alongside expanded placements at Albertsons, BJ’s, Sam’s Club, Ahold, Food Lion, Fresh Thyme, Sheetz, Shaw’s and Winn-Dixie. Officially opened the East Rutherford expansion, adding critical freezer and refrigeration storage, which will result in lower outside storage fees, while building out upgraded locker rooms, break rooms and training spaces. Completed a public offering of common stock in July 2026, including full exercise of the underwriters’ option, for net proceeds of approximately $108.6 million to support future M&A initiatives. Invited to attend leading investor conferences nationally, including the BMO Farm to Market Conference, Craig-Hallum Institutional Investor Conference, TD Cowen Future of the Consumer Conference, William Blair Growth Conference, Oppenheimer Consumer Growth Conference, and the D.A. Davidson Consumer Conference. Cash and cash equivalents as of July 31, 2026 grew to $138.6 million, compared to $20.0 million as of January 31, 2026. The increase was primarily driven by the net proceeds of the Company’s July common stock offering, together with $11.9 million of cash generated from operations during the first six months of the fiscal year. Management Commentary Adam L. Michaels, Chairman and CEO of Mama’s Creations, said: “The second quarter was another step-change quarter for Mama’s. Thanks to the creativity of our sales team, the resilience of our operations team and the increased capacity from the September 2025 Bay Shore acquisition, revenue grew 55% to $54.6 million and adjusted EBITDA grew 69% to $5.5 million. Though the real story of the quarter is not the impressive growth rate, but the shape of it. Every bottom-line metric grew faster than revenue year-over-year, with net income more than doubling and operating expenses shrinking as a percent of revenue. Gross margin turned back up sequentially as the items we launched in Q1 moved toward steady-state production. That is exactly the sequence we told you to expect: invest into the launch, then harvest the leverage. “We also transformed our balance sheet. In July we completed a public offering for approximately $108.6 million in net proceeds, ending the quarter with a $138.6 million cash war chest. Combined with our strong operating cash flow, that is a decisive change in our capacity to pursue the accretive M&A that is central to our path to $1 billion in revenue — and from a position of strength rather than necessity. Our M&A pipeline is active, and our criteria have not changed: businesses that broaden our one-stop-shop platform, bring premium customers or capabilities we do not have today, and are accretive from day one. With this strong balance sheet, we can credibly pursue the right asset when it becomes available. And as always, regardless of the size of our growing war chest, we will remain as steadfast and disciplined in our approach as we did four years ago when we started this journey. “Catapult – the fourth of our 4 Cs – is where this quarter really showed itself. We won over a dozen new placements, more than 60% of them built using chicken ‘bottoms,’ and the majority were cross-sells: bringing items a customer did not previously buy from us into banners we already serve. That is the one-stop-shop strategy at work. The key win was Costco, which selected us for a second half multi-vendor mailer — their most productive promotion — in all eight regions nationally. We have taken that business from roughly $0.5 million four years ago to over $25 million last year, and having all eight regions eagerly sign up tells me Anna Mancini’s recipe is doing just fine west of the Mississippi. And next month we officially launch in banner Kroger for the first time, beginning with four items in over 100 stores across the Louisville division — the third and final leg of the ‘big three’ retailer targets we laid out at our past investor days. “To conclude, the combination of 55% revenue growth, expanding operating leverage, a $138.6 million cash position, and a category moving decisively in our direction gives us more confidence than ever in our ability to deliver sustained, profitable growth and long-term value for our shareholders,” concluded Michaels. Second Quarter Fiscal 2027 Financial Results Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 increased 55.0% to $54.6 million, as compared to $35.2 million in the same year-ago quarter. The increase was primarily due to the ramp of the new branded items we launched with major retailers in the first quarter, item expansion at new and existing customers, and the contribution of the Bay Shore acquisition. Gross profit increased 49.1% to $13.1 million, or 24.0% of total revenues, in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, as compared to $8.8 million, or 24.9% of total revenues, in the same year-ago quarter, even with $1 million more trade versus prior year. Importantly, the prior year was prior to the Company’s acquisition of Bay Shore. Gross margin improved sequentially from 23.6% in the first quarter as the new packaging technologies and protein form factors deployed to support the Q1 new product launches moved toward steady-state production. We remain on track toward the Company’s mid-to-high-20% corporate gross margin target. Operating expenses totaled $10.1 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, as compared to $7.1 million in the same year-ago quarter. As a percentage of revenue, operating expenses declined 160 basis points to 18.5% from 20.1% in the prior-year quarter, demonstrating the improved operating leverage in the model as it scales. The change in absolute dollars was primarily attributable to the Bay Shore acquisition. Net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 increased 100.9% to $2.6 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, as compared to net income of $1.3 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, in the same year-ago quarter. Second quarter net income totaled 4.7% of revenue, as compared to 3.6% in the same year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, increased 68.9% to $5.5 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2027, as compared to $3.3 million in the same year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 10.1% of revenue from 9.3% a year ago. Turning to the balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents as of July 31, 2026 totaled $138.6 million, as compared to $20.0 million as of January 31, 2026. The increase was driven primarily by approximately $108.6 million of net proceeds from the July common stock offering, together with $11.9 million of cash provided by operating activities during the first six months of fiscal 2027. As of July 31, 2026, total debt stood at $4.8 million. Conference Call Management will host an investor conference call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time today, Thursday, September 3, 2026 to discuss the Company’s second quarter fiscal 2027 financial results, provide a corporate update, and conclude with Q&A from telephone participants. To participate, please use the following information: Q2 FY2027 Earnings Conference CallDate: Thursday, September 3, 2026Time: 4:30 p.m. Eastern timeU.S. Dial-in: 1-877-451-6152International Dial-in: 1-201-389-0879Conference ID: 13762347Webcast: MAMA Q2 FY2027 Earnings Conference Call Please join at least five minutes before the start of the call to ensure timely participation. A playback of the call will be available through Tuesday, November 3, 2026. To listen, please call 1-844-512-2921 within the United States and Canada or 1-412-317-6671 when calling internationally, using replay pin number 13762347. A webcast replay will also be available using the webcast link above. About Mama’s Creations, Inc. Mama’s Creations, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAMA) is a leading marketer, manufacturer and distributor of fresh deli prepared foods, found in over 12,000 grocery, mass, club and convenience stores nationally. The Company’s broad product portfolio, born from MamaMancini’s rich history in Italian foods, now consists of a variety of high quality, fresh, clean and easy to prepare foods to address the needs of both our consumers and retailers. Our vision is to become a one-stop-shop deli solutions platform, leveraging vertical integration and a diverse family of brands to offer a wide array of prepared foods to meet the changing demands of the modern consumer. For more information, please visit https://mamascreations.com. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures This press release includes the following non-GAAP measure – adjusted EBITDA, which is not a measure of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income as a measure of financial performance. The company believes this non-GAAP measure, when considered together with the corresponding GAAP measures, provides useful information to investors and management regarding financial and business trends relating to the company’s results of operations. However, this non-GAAP measure has significant limitations in that it does not reflect all the costs and other items associated with the operation of the company’s business as determined in accordance with GAAP. In addition, the company’s non-GAAP measures may be calculated differently and are therefore not comparable to similar measures by other companies. Therefore, investors should consider non-GAAP measures in addition to, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, measures of financial performance in accordance with GAAP. For a definition and reconciliation of EBITDA to net income, its corresponding GAAP measure, please see the reconciliation table shown in this press release below. US-GAAP NET INCOME TO ADJUSTED EBITDA RECONCILIATION(Unaudited)(in thousands) Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements include information about management’s view of the Company’s future expectations, plans and prospects, including future business opportunities or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “eventually,” “expect,” “future,” “may,” “look forward to,” “plan,” “projected,” “should,” “will,” and other words that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes. You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Certain of these risk factors and others are included in documents the Company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations and assumptions about future events. While management considers these expectations and assumptions to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, regulatory, and other factors, contingencies, and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company’s control. You are urged not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Except as may be required by applicable law or regulation, the Company does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of such statements. Investor Relations Contact:Lucas A. ZimmermanManaging DirectorMZ Group - MZ North America(949) [email protected] Mama’s Creations, Inc.Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets(In thousands, except share and per share data) Mama’s Creations, Inc.Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations(Unaudited)(in thousands, except per share data) Mama’s Creations, Inc.Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows(Unaudited)(in thousands)