POST

Post Holdings, Inc. POST topped third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings expectations even as sales declined, with Foodservice delivering better-than-anticipated performance. Attention now shifts to fiscal 2027. Management has set a comparable adjusted EBITDA starting point of about $1.48 billion and expects Foodservice growth, pricing and productivity to offset inflation and lingering volume pressure enough to keep adjusted EBITDA generally flat. Post Holdings reported adjusted earnings of $1.78 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.63. Net sales fell 1.8% year over year to $1,948.0 million and missed the $2,019 million consensus mark. Post Holdings, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Post Holdings, Inc. Quote Foodservice was the key upside driver. Segment volumes increased 4.3% as customer service levels and protein-based shake production improved. Adjusted EBITDA still fell 11.4% to $140.8 million because the year-ago quarter benefited from elevated avian-influenza pricing. Management narrowed fiscal 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $1,560-$1,570 million from $1,550-$1,580 million. The midpoint remained $1,565 million. Post Holdings also expects fiscal 2026 capital expenditures of $370-$390 million. The spending plan includes investments intended to expand Foodservice capacity as management provides early context for the next fiscal year. Post Holdings' fiscal 2026 outlook includes approximately $60 million of Foodservice earnings above the segment’s $500 million normalized annual run rate and approximately $20 million from fiscal 2026 divestitures. Excluding those items produces a comparable adjusted EBITDA base of approximately $1.48 billion. Management’s preliminary fiscal 2027 view is for adjusted EBITDA to remain generally flat against that base. The comparison removes the above-normal Foodservice earnings and divestiture contributions embedded in fiscal 2026 guidance. Foodservice growth off the $500 million run rate, pricing actions and productivity initiatives are expected to largely offset inflation and continued volume softness. Post Holdings is also spending $80-$90 million in fiscal 2026 on cage-free egg expansion and the Norwalk, IA, precooked egg facility expansion. The Chefs’ Warehouse, Inc. CHEF provides a foodservice demand read-through because it distributes specialty food products to restaurants, hotels, caterers and other hospitality customers. Its customer mix makes CHEF relevant when assessing demand conditions across the broader foodservice channel. Darling Ingredients Inc. DAR provides another food-industry reference point through its processing of materials from the animal agriculture and food industries into feed and food ingredients. Its exposure to animal-based inputs and food-industry supply chains offers context for commodity and ingredient conditions that can affect food producers. The bottom line is that Foodservice is the main operating offset Post expects against inflation and softer volumes in fiscal 2027. Pricing and productivity also matter, but later pricing increases the importance of execution as the year progresses. Valuation provides additional context. POST trades at 11.74X forward 12-month EPS, below its five-year median of 17.74X. The multiple is also closer to the five-year low of 9.18X, placing the stock toward the lower end of its historical valuation range. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research POST currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), along with a VGM Score of B, a Value Score of A, a Growth Score of D and a Momentum Score of C. The scores indicate a more favorable value profile than growth or momentum, while the Hold rank supports a measured near-term view. The Style Scores complement the Zacks Rank rather than override it, leaving investors to watch whether Foodservice growth can offset broader operating pressure. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 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 Post Holdings, Inc. (POST) : 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

Post’s second quarter results were met with a pronounced negative market reaction, as the company reported a year-on-year decline in sales and missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations. Management attributed the shortfall primarily to volume declines in its core retail businesses and heightened cost pressures, particularly in categories such as refrigerated retail and pet food. Chief Operating Officer Nicolas Catoggio pointed to ongoing challenges in the ready-to-eat cereal and pet segments, noting, “We are constantly assessing optimization opportunities across every business.” Management also acknowledged that recent product and pricing decisions created near-term headwinds, especially within the 9Lives value pet food brand. Is now the time to buy POST? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $1.95 billion vs analyst estimates of $2.02 billion (1.8% year-on-year decline, 3.7% miss) Adjusted EPS: $1.78 vs analyst estimates of $1.71 (4.3% beat) Adjusted EBITDA: $357.6 million vs analyst estimates of $372.2 million (18.4% margin, 3.9% miss) EBITDA guidance for the full year is $1.57 billion at the midpoint, in line with analyst expectations Operating Margin: 9.7%, down from 11.8% in the same quarter last year Market Capitalization: $3.54 billion While we enjoy listening to the management’s commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls is the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Andrew Lazar (Barclays): asked about the decision to prioritize debt reduction over share buybacks. CFO Matt Mainer responded that higher interest rates and refinancing costs are driving the shift, but share repurchases will still be considered opportunistically. Matthew Smith (Stifel): inquired about the outlook for capital expenditure and potential network optimization. Mainer explained that while this year’s CapEx range is slightly higher, future investment will focus on Foodservice and possible network streamlining if clear opportunities arise. David Palmer (Evercore ISI): pressed for details on volume trends in cereal and pet. COO Nicolas Catoggio indicated cereal volumes are expected to move closer to category averages, and noted market share gains in premium cereal and Nutrish’s core SKUs. Thomas Palmer (JPMorgan): requested updates on progress in the pet brands. Catoggio outlined recent improvements in Nutrish, especially for core products at key retailers, and described ongoing challenges for 9Lives in a highly promotional environment. Carla Casella (JPMorgan): questioned the role of private label in pet food. Catoggio described Post as a premium private label supplier, emphasizing growth opportunities as they integrate the broader manufacturing footprint. In the coming quarters, the StockStory team will be watching (1) how effectively Post executes targeted pricing actions to catch up with inflationary pressures, (2) whether Foodservice can sustain its earnings contribution as market conditions normalize, and (3) the progress of cost optimization initiatives, particularly in the pet and peanut butter segments. The pace of improvement in retail volumes and the company’s ability to manage capital allocation amid rising interest rates will also be important milestones. Post currently trades at $80.53, down from $90.23 just before the earnings. Is the company at an inflection point that warrants a buy or sell? The answer lies in our full research report (it’s free for active Edge members). WHILE YOU’RE HERE: Top 9 Market-Beating Stocks. The best stocks don’t just beat the market once. They do it again. And again. Robust revenue growth, rising free cash flow, returns on capital that leave their competition in the dust. The market has already rewarded these businesses. But our AI platform says the party isn’t over. Find out which 9 stocks made the cut this week — FREE. Get Our Top 9 Market-Beating Stocks for Free HERE. Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Tecnoglass (+1,552% between June 2020 and June 2025). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Friday, August 7, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. ET Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer - Matthew J. Mainer Chief Operating Officer - Nicolas Catoggio Operator: Welcome to the Post Holdings Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Matt Mainer, CFO of Post. Matt Mainer: Thank you, and good morning. Thank you all for joining us today for Post's Third Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings question-and-answer session. I'm joined this morning by Nico Catoggio, our COO. Rob is unable to join us today as he is feeling under the weather and Daniel is actually with his wife who is going into labor. Before I turn the call to Nico, though, I want to remind you that this call is being recorded, and an audio replay will be available on our website at postholdings.com. During today's call, we make forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that should be carefully considered by investors as actual results could differ materially from these statements. These forward-looking statements are current as of the date of this call, and management undertakes no obligation to update those statements. The press release and written management remarks that support today's call are posted on our website in the Investors section. This call will discuss certain non-GAAP measures. For a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the nearest GAAP measure, see our press release issued yesterday and posted on our website. With that, I will turn the call over to Nico. Nicolas Catoggio: Thank you, Matt. Good morning, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Our third quarter results were slightly ahead of expectations, driven by stronger-than-anticipated performance in Foodservice, and we are maintaining the midpoint of our fiscal 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance while narrowing the range. From a capital allocation standpoint, we repurchased 4% of our outstanding shares, bringing our total fiscal year-to-date reduction to approximately 17%, while maintaining leverage within our target range. Looking ahead, we believe it's important to provide early context for fiscal 2027. After adjusting our fiscal 2026 outlook for approximately $80 million of items affecting comparability, we enter fiscal 2027 with a comparable adjusted EBITDA base of approximately $1.48 billion. While our fiscal 2027 budget remains under development, our preliminary outlook is for adjusted EBITDA that is relatively consistent with this level. Despite normalizing Foodservice earnings, the absence of divested businesses, anticipated inflation and ongoing volume pressure, we currently expect targeted pricing actions, cost savings and Foodservice line rate growth to support fiscal 2027 underlying EBITDA, generally flat relative to the comparable adjusted EBITDA base of approximately $1.48 billion that I mentioned before. With that, operator, please open the line for Q&A. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Andrew Lazar with Barclays. Andrew Lazar: I think to start off Nico you highlight a shift from what's been a very aggressive share repurchase activity to really more of a deleveraging posture. I was hoping you could delve into this decision a bit more. Is it concern about the direction of EBITDA in the near term and some of the volume pressure given your '27 outlook or something else? And does this change your ability or desire to go after cash accretive deals that may make sense? Matt Mainer: Sure. I can take that one, Andrew. And really, it's consistent with how we've always thought about capital allocation when it comes to M&A versus debt reduction, and that's less a function of a leverage number and really more a function of what we're seeing in interest rates and refinancing impacts. So while we don't have a bond maturity for 4 years, we factor in the cash flow impact of refinancing that debt now at higher rates and what would that do to free cash flow. And as we see rates continue to rise from a refinancing standpoint, that just weighs more heavily to say, hey, we've got to start allocating more capital to debt reduction to make sure we're bringing down debt. So as we get to refinancing, we're not seeing a deterioration of our free cash flow. Again, we'll still maintain the ability to buy back shares opportunistically just in the current interest rate environment, it's certainly going to be at a slower pace than the last couple of years. I think on the counter, if we see rates somehow return and we're back in a 5% refinancing rate, then our view would change, but that's certainly the big driver and the primary win is how we look at it. Relative to the M&A point, I think another angle we view is where is a comfortable leverage level we could take leverage to and where is a comfortable starting point. And that gets us to a similar spot. Hey, mid-4s is somewhere we're comfortable for, but we wouldn't want to see that number rise because that would deteriorate some of the flexibility for cash M&A. So I think that's where the preliminary outlook for next year is more of a consideration. But again, I'd say, consistent with how we've always viewed it. Andrew Lazar: Got it. And then Post has been obviously very proactive in optimizing its capacity and its assets in categories like ready-to-eat cereal to sort of stay ahead, so to speak, of sort of the structural declining category and maintain solid margins and cash flow. having already closed, I guess, 3 plants in cereal, given trends in the company's dog food business and maybe some of the potential elasticity impacts of some of the pricing actions that you're talking about here, I guess, are there some similar actions that you can or may need to take in sort of the pet food space around asset optimization sort of like you've done in cereal in the past year or 2? Nicolas Catoggio: Thanks, Andrew, and it's a good question. So let me start picking up. So we are constantly assessing those opportunities across every business and in particular in PCB. So before I get to pet, and I will answer that one, we also just made the decision to shut down 2 peanut butter plants. And that's, again, to your point, it's exactly the same playbook that we used in cereal. That's as we integrated the AW business, and we streamlined that business and exited some business that we were literally losing money. We saw the opportunity to shut down 2 plants. So that's in the works that's going to impact '28 and order of magnitude is similar to what you saw in cereal in the past. So that's on peanut butter. On pet, it's a good question. So let me tell you that beyond footprint, we haven't even scratched the surface in cost in pet, not the way we did it in cereal. And that's because we wanted to wait until we have the confidence that we had a stable pet business. And we feel that we're getting to that point. We are now at a 3% market share and what we are confident is if we can stay in that level, and we think we can because some of the initiatives that we pursue to turn around nutrition are starting to actually show encouraging results. If we can stay in that, call it, 3%, 3.2% market share range, then now we can actually go after cost aggressively. And it's more than just footprint. There are opportunities to simplify the portfolio, harmonize formulas and a lot of the things that we did in cereal that when you do that, then that will allow us to actually optimize the footprint. So your question is -- to your question, yes, we are assessing those. We are very confident that we have a lot of opportunities in pet, and we're actually starting to now work on the pipeline of those opportunities. Operator: Our next question is coming from Matt Smith with Stifel. Matthew Smith: The narrowed guidance range for this year implies fourth quarter more or less in line with the performance here in the third quarter. You called out Foodservice continuing to move towards the normalized run rate, suggesting it steps lower on a sequential basis. So can you talk about where the offsets to that Foodservice moving lower, where you see a stronger EBITDA outlook as you look into the fourth quarter here? Matt Mainer: The offsets to Foodservice pulling back in the quarter? Matthew Smith: Yes, as we think about kind of the shape of the P&L in the fourth quarter and look ahead into '27. Matt Mainer: Yes. So it's more of a -- we saw refrigerated retail pull back a bit more than anticipated out of the Easter benefit in Q2 in terms of results in Q3. We see some improvement in that business in Q4 and really for the rest of the portfolio, pretty flat. So we're not talking about significant changes overall. Matthew Smith: Matt, the CapEx range moved a little higher at the low end for this year. Can you talk about that incremental investment? And as you look ahead to '27, give a view of if CapEx remains relatively stable or moves perhaps even higher as you look at some of the supply chain work you're undertaking? Matt Mainer: Sure. I think just really a refinement of this year and the pacing we're seeing on the CapEx range just lead us a little bit higher in the range from where we started, but that's definitely a bit of a moving target. And again, a lot of these capital projects we're trying to work through as fast as we can because they're in the plan for a reason. When you think about next year, a bit too soon to say. I think just to add on to Nico's comments, as you think about potential network optimization, that's an area where if we see clear opportunities, there could be some additional capital spend to clear the way for those. Outside of that, I would expect just continued investment in Foodservice and pursuing growth as we get our plan together for next year and the following year thoughts and then really more of a maintenance level across the balance of the business. Operator: Our next question is coming from David Palmer with Evercore ISI. David Palmer: Great. First of all, best to Rob, and congratulations to Daniel, big day. I want to ask you about the EBITDA guidance, just what's behind the $1.48 billion for PCB, EBITDA down mid-single digits, assuming -- should we assume that PCB organic sales down 3%, maybe mid-single digits down for PCB with that guidance? Is that reasonable? Matt Mainer: I think it's -- again, I think we've got kind of a first look and ranges around our businesses, David, and just given the nonrecurring things we were seeing, we wanted to get some indication out there. I think we're a little cautious to get into details around each business segment until we have a more formalized plan. But certainly, we continue to -- we've commented in our release that we see growth in Foodservice next year offsetting some of these pressures we're seeing in terms of inflation and volume pressures. So I think fair, there's probably a bit of pullback in overall retail offset by Foodservice, but don't really want to get into the by segment comments yet. Nicolas Catoggio: Yes. And what I would add actually to Matt's point, getting into the specific segments, but it's a comment that applies to all of retail, our retail businesses. We expect, as Matt said, inflation, and it's going to be a year where we'll probably chase inflation. Typically to be able to price, we need to wait to see the inflation. That's how you have the discussion with the retailers. So that's what that kind of initial outlook actually reflects. David Palmer: And sort of behind that is I'm looking at the long term here and volume trends for your all-in cereal business, including private label and volume has been down mid-single digits basically the last 2 years now. And I wonder if that's just kind of how you're thinking about that business going forward as an underlying assumption going forward, i.e., it's not going to get better anytime soon or maybe the other, do you see some real tangible reasons why it could get better over the next fiscal year? And I'll pass it on. Nicolas Catoggio: Again, we still don't know -- we don't have all the details of the plants. And what I can tell you is that I would expect the cereal volume to move closer to the category next year. The reason why we've been driving the category a bit in the last year, it's a lot of decisions that we made. So one is we talked about it in the last 2 quarters. We adjusted the assortment to have better performance or efficiency in our promotions. That is worth 1 percentage point of the gap versus the category. So it's significant. It's 50% of the gap versus the category. And the rest, as we mentioned, is we have some distribution in our Malt-O-Meal brand, and it's kind of the SKUs, the lower velocity SKUs, but without going forward, the rest of the portfolio is performing really well. Our premium portfolio, we are gaining market share in our premium portfolio. That is great news. So I would anticipate moving closer to the category. Where the category is going to be, we don't know. The good news is it's actually slowly improving quarter after quarter. It's getting closer to what we see as the long-term sustainable trend in the category of, call it, minus 1%, minus 2%. We are not there yet, but we're getting closer. Operator: Our next question is coming from Tom Palmer with JPMorgan. Thomas Palmer: Maybe just follow up on something you touched on earlier in the call related to Andrew's question. The pet business, you made mention that you like the progress that you're starting to see. Could we maybe just get more of an update there on kind of the different brands and where we stand in terms of instituting changes and seeing those on-shelf changes? Nicolas Catoggio: Yes, absolutely. So let me -- if you take the year-over-year decline for that business, 60% of that is our value brands, and most of that is 9Lives. And we mentioned last quarter, we relaunched 1/3 of that brand that we were not making money on. We saw elasticities higher than what we anticipated. But at the same time, we like the margins, right? We like the margins more than what we used to, I would say. So we had to do it. We are actually working as we speak, and we are seeing good progress on kind of resetting the value proposition for that. At the same time, the cat segment because it's where the growth is in the category has been very, very active in terms of promotion. So 9Lives that stands essentially for value in the category has seen a lot of promotions, competitive promotions and with 2 of our main competitor brands actually hitting price points below our brand. We are not going to follow them. We are very disciplined when we think about promotions. So we don't see that as something that will kind of remain like that over time. But in the short term, that's a lot of the pressure that 9Lives is under. Nutrish -- so let me tell you the good news and -- so the good news is where the brand is fully relaunched and we work -- actively work our assortment to what we call our core assortment, beef, chicken and salmon, the brand is performing well. So our largest retailer is a good example of that. We very aggressively manage our assortment. We have what we call our mass SKUs they are on shelf. And they are losing market share year-over-year to now over the last 13 weeks, we are gaining market share. So in dry dock, that's what we measure as some other retailers where we are actually transitioning, we see a clear inflection point in the performance of the brand. Now the transition has taken a bit longer than anticipated. It's been a bit more messy. And the other thing is there's a clear difference in performance between, again, what we call our assortment and the flanker SKUs. So what we are working on is for the next reset is doing a lot more of what we did in this -- one of the larger retailers that is working the assortment to actually focus on that core set of SKUs that performed really well. Again, the good news is where will relaunch those, where they are fully transitioned, we are actually seeing a clear inflection point and those SKUs actually in the top third of the category, and that's very encouraging. Thomas Palmer: Great. I did have one other question on PCP. Just looking back over the past 4 quarters, a pretty meaningful pullback in marketing agency activity. As you look forward, since you're going to start lapping that pullback, is there more to do? Or given some of these on-shelf changes, especially in pet, does it make sense to maybe invest back a bit? Just kind of curious your views there. Nicolas Catoggio: Yes. So I would actually say there are 2 things behind that. One is we constantly work to improve the return on spend and the effectiveness of spend. So almost 100% of our spend now is digital and no linear TV. So we improve our returns. So that's on the -- across the portfolio, but mostly on the cereal side. So we haven't pulled support out of the cereal brands. We just got more effective spend. In pet, some of the A&C pullback is essentially -- it's not necessarily A&C that we're pulling out is we are actually deploying dollars differently. So there's more spend on in-store activation or select rollbacks and support -- retailer support that is, again, dollars that move from A&C to, call it, trade spend to reset some of the equations that we talk about. Do we anticipate some support back in some brands? It's brand by brand. We feel really good about the returns in our cereal brands, really, really good. And we're going to be selective in our support in our pet brands. Operator: We'll move on now to Scott Marks with Jefferies. Scott Marks: First thing I wanted to ask about is the Foodservice business and specifically on the profit side. I think despite the lapping the HPAI pricing adders and price realization being decidedly negative this quarter, you still put up a pretty strong profit number actually in line with what you did in Q2. So just wondering if you can help us understand the moving pieces there? Why was it so strong? And maybe why shouldn't we believe that the actual annualized run rate is higher than the $500 million? Matt Mainer: Sure. Very fair question. I think just to think about the $500 million run rate is really an estimate of what we see the current business earning power is under normalized circumstances. And I think you got to define the view of normalized circumstances is really, I'd say, 3 things. It's our balance -- I'm sorry, our business being back in balance from a supply and demand standpoint, really our inventories back to normal and then also underlying market versus grain-based egg pricing. Happy to say the first 2, so our internal supply and demand and our inventories, which we continue to build this past quarter are back to where we'd like to see them and in balance. So we really left with that third piece, which is a bit of imbalance between market and grain-based egg pricing. And that's really a function -- all 3 were a function of HPAI last year and throwing the industry and our own supply out of whack. Again, I think the third piece, we believe, will correct itself just when you have a situation of oversupply is where we believe we are from an industry standpoint that is actually not going to survive long when you've got chickens, the cost to feed them is greater than what you can command on the open market. We expect people will take some actions to bring that in line. So I think that collectively is how we really view the underlying run rate and how we view the business heading into '27. Again, we feel we can fully grow off of that number in '27 off the $500 million run rate. But that's our attempt to try and carve those pieces out and get to what we see in underlying volumes and balance of the business where it's running today. Nicolas Catoggio: And Scott, one thing that I would add is in Q3, we probably took a bit more advantage of the market conditions than what we anticipated. So we exited the quarter with really high inventories. That's part of what is reflected in that number. Scott Marks: Understood. Appreciate the color there. And then maybe just as a follow-up, since you guys gave fiscal '27 guidance, you kind of gave some tailwinds helping you, some of the headwinds that are offsetting. Just wondering if you can share any assumptions in terms of rate of inflation, where that's coming from? Just any other building blocks you're willing to share at this point? Matt Mainer: Yes. I think we're hesitant to get into any broad-based assumptions. We really just wanted to rebase '26 to make sure we're very clear on Foodservice run rate, where we're seeing that and then also the impact of the 2 divestitures we made. I think beyond that, like I said, we're in the middle of stages here and have some first looks and ranges, but really don't want to get into underlying assumptions. I think broad brush, we see those all balancing out, and that's why we're saying a stable flat year to a rebalanced '26, but really not in a position to get into a lot of details around those assumptions. Certainly, as we get to November, we'll be able to walk through much more specifically some of those assumptions. Operator: Our next question is coming from Marc Torrente with Wells Fargo. Marc Torrente: Maybe just asking the last one a bit differently. The flattish outlook into next year, are the inflation pressures and volume trends you're seeing consistent with your prior expectations that you sort of walked through on the last call? And where is that mostly flowing through? Nicolas Catoggio: I can try at least. So again, we're still working on the budget. So we don't have all the details. But I would actually say volumes are consistent with what we're seeing. Inflation, I mentioned in the last call that we wanted to see -- we needed to wait to have a bit more visibility. And I think what we're seeing is coming in probably at the higher end of what we were expecting. So it's within the range that we were expecting, but at the higher end of that range. And again, that's part of what is reflected in that initial outlook. Marc Torrente: Okay. I appreciate that. And then on Refrigerated Retail, could you maybe help us understand some of the weakness in the quarter? The underlying was down. I think that was mostly due to the pricing lap and holiday timing. But maybe just what does that business look like near term? And maybe quantify some of the impact from the Crystal Farm sale. Matt Mainer: Sure. So yes, to your point, year-over-year, the Easter timing was a big factor. And then also as a reminder, in Q3 and Q4 of last year, we had pricing adders around AI that were beneficial for the business. And those just like our Foodservice business that were taken off as we got into fiscal '27. So Easter and those pricing adders are the big year-over-year drivers. And then in addition to that, which is more of the current run rate of the business, certainly, as we've seen across the portfolio, but on a relative size basis, just more impactful for Refrigerated Retail has been the impact of higher fuel costs and freight costs that we've seen and we talked about on our prior call. And then the other impact is around eggs. The dynamic there is we're selling on the market. We're a grain-based buyer of eggs, and you've got a dynamic where market prices have plummeted. So it's a tough situation to try and take pricing in to equalize those when the markets are suggesting price of eggs from a market standpoint is much lower than the dynamic we've seen here in Q3, and that's really maybe the gap to expectations, both internal and external for Q3. Operator: We'll take our next question from Rob Dickerson with U.S. Bancorp BTIG. Robert Dickerson: So you put in the release last night and some commentary this morning on just kind of the ongoing volume weakness, but then offsets and part of the offsets will be pricing, but you're also saying be kind of chasing the pricing a little bit because that has to come through first. So I guess just to clarify simplistically, it would seem like if there's a little bit of pricing contribution next year, that would probably be later in the year, maybe more back half in the year. And then secondly, if you could just touch on, broadly speaking, at least, kind of where you think you might still see some ongoing volume softness and then where you also might think you might have a higher probability of some of that pricing? Just kind of going through the different segments, at least for purposes of modeling. Nicolas Catoggio: So I think you're spot on. So our assumption right now is that pricing will be more towards the end of the year. Right now, where we see more of that happening is in PCB. But again, early on in the process. So -- but that's where we see most of the inflation and where we expect some pricing. Volumes, I think it's going to be similar to what we've seen. So if you think about the categories, again, we don't know exactly what the category is going to be, but cereal expected to decline probably 2.5%. But again, we don't know. I mean -- and then in that, as a reminder, most of -- so 2/3 of our portfolio, 60% of our portfolio is dry dog. That segment is underperforming the category. So if you think about dog it's underperforming cat. So dog is declining, cat segment is growing. And within dog dry is underperforming. So that's going to be a headwind. So that's where we see some volume softness. But again, it's more driven by the category than our brands. We feel that we are going to be moving towards that category average. But again, considering the mix of our portfolio. Robert Dickerson: Okay. Great. Very helpful. And then just quickly back to the leverage versus buyback perspective right now. I think you said kind of comfortable in that mid-4 range around there. also said you don't really have any big maturities coming due, but clearly want to be cognizant of the rate environment and how it impacts interest and cash flow, et cetera. So kind of all that said, though, is that think what you're saying basically is kind of the cash allocated to buybacks, let's say, over the next 18 months, just making it up, will be lower and then the cash to incremental debt paydown would be higher despite having kind of no maturity coming due. Like you're going to pay down debt, just not buy back as much stock. That is basically it. Matt Mainer: Yes. I think you summarized it well. I mean that's given our current view, and we'll continue to look at where rates are going and refinance rates. But just in the last quarter, as an example, our 10-year refinance rate, which is our benchmark, what we look at, has risen 50 basis points. So that certainly goes into the model and the factor. So assuming rates stay elevated over the next year, that's the right way to think about how we're thinking about capital allocation favoring debt reduction over share repurchases. Again, we still have a pool of cash flow that we can deploy against share repurchases. It's just -- and the balance is going to be more on the debt side in this interest rate environment. Operator: Our next question is coming from Carla Casella with JPMorgan. Carla Casella: You mentioned in the prepared remarks about gaining some share in private label in pet. And I'm just wondering how you think about private label in that business? Is that a bigger opportunity? Or is that something you're just using to fill in space and kind of how you think about private label in general? Nicolas Catoggio: In general, in pet, you mean? Carla Casella: Yes. Nicolas Catoggio: Yes. So if you remember, we lost some business 18 months ago, we were confident that we were going to recover some of that, and that's essentially what's happening. We have a fairly unique position in the category. We are a premium private label player. So we produce mostly premium products. And that's a segment that is growing in the category. So we are well positioned. So we see more opportunities of that. And then the other opportunity is as we continue integrating the footprint, we see more opportunities of actually expanding private label as we leverage the full footprint that we have. So we feel good about that. That business is actually performing really well. Carla Casella: That's great. And I'm just wondering if you have any comments in terms of like in pet, where you're seeing the pockets of strength? Is it mass, club, pet specialty, any kind of divergence in trends by type of retailer? Nicolas Catoggio: Yes, it's a good question. So the obvious one is e-commerce is growing -- outgrowing every other channel. And it's both the 2 pure plays, so that you know and also the retailer.com businesses. So all those are outgrowing brick-and-mortar. Within brick-and-mortar, pet specialty is still as a channel underperforming relative to mass. So the mass is doing probably slightly better than the average specialty is underperforming and e-commerce is clearly overperforming. Carla Casella: Okay. Great. And then can you comment on SNAP impact either on the quarter and how you're thinking about it for the year or if there's like a timing issue of when you expect the greatest SNAP impact versus when it may normalize? Nicolas Catoggio: SNAP, we've been -- I wish I knew exactly the answer for that. So most people see it as a headwind. I personally have had this theory, and I think it's what we're seeing in the category. It's probably consistent with that, that it could be a tailwind for categories like cereal because of affordability. Cereal is still one of the cheapest categories for breakfast and it's definitely the cheapest way to actually have the right nutrients in your breakfast. So we longer term, I still see it as an opportunity. But the reality is there's a lot of noise. And I would add, it's not only SNAP, there are changes in the WIC program, the women, infant and children program that also impact the category because there were changes to the dairy allocation that impact the category. So there's so much noise. So I don't have the perfect answer for SNAP. I see it as potentially an opportunity for cereal. And the reality is if you think about when SNAP change, that is in our Q1, that's when we started seeing the category starting to perform a bit better. Operator: Thank you. This concludes today's Post Holdings Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. Please disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. Before you buy stock in Post, 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 Post wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and 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 $400,209!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,375,393!* That performance is why people listen. With a track record of beating the S&P 500 by 4x, Stock Advisor offers a distinct advantage. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built for the long haul. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 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. Post (POST) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Interested in Post Holdings, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Fiscal 2027 adjusted EBITDA is expected to remain broadly flat at approximately $1.48 billion, with pricing, cost savings and food-service margin growth offsetting inflation, weaker volumes and normalized food-service earnings. Post repurchased 4% of its shares in the quarter, reducing its fiscal year-to-date share count by about 17%, but plans to prioritize debt reduction over buybacks if elevated interest rates increase refinancing costs. Food service continued to outperform but is expected to normalize toward a roughly $500 million annualized EBITDA run rate, while Post Consumer Brands focuses on stabilizing pet food, improving cereal performance and closing two peanut-butter plants. MP Materials Is Quietly Building a Rare Earth Powerhouse Post (NYSE:POST) said its third-quarter fiscal 2026 results came in slightly ahead of its expectations, aided by stronger-than-anticipated food service performance, while management maintained the midpoint of its full-year adjusted EBITDA outlook and narrowed its guidance range. Chief Operating Officer Nico Catoggio said the company also repurchased 4% of its outstanding shares during the quarter, bringing its fiscal year-to-date share-count reduction to about 17%. Going forward, however, Post expects to place greater emphasis on debt reduction as higher interest rates raise the potential cost of future refinancing. → Sandisk Just Delivered a Blowout Quarter—Here's Why the Stock Is Falling 5 Under-the-Radar Consumer Staples Stocks With Pricing Power Post provided preliminary context for fiscal 2027, though management said its budget remains under development. After adjusting fiscal 2026 expectations for roughly $80 million in items affecting comparability, the company said it is entering fiscal 2027 with a comparable adjusted EBITDA base of approximately $1.48 billion. Management’s preliminary expectation is for fiscal 2027 adjusted EBITDA to be relatively consistent with that level. Catoggio said targeted pricing actions, cost savings and food service margin-rate growth are expected to offset normalizing food service earnings, the absence of divested businesses, anticipated inflation and continued volume pressure. → 4 Oil and Gas ETF Plays as Prices Stay Sky-High These 4 Mid-Caps Just Announced Big Buyback Plans “We currently expect targeted pricing actions, cost savings, and food service margin rate growth to support fiscal 2027 underlying EBITDA generally flat” compared with the approximately $1.48 billion comparable base, Catoggio said. Management indicated that inflation is trending toward the higher end of its earlier expected range. Catoggio said the company expects to “chase inflation” in its retail businesses, meaning pricing may follow cost increases rather than precede them. He said the company’s current assumption is that pricing actions would occur more toward the end of fiscal 2027 and that Post Consumer Brands, or PCB, is where it currently sees the most inflation and potential pricing. → No Hangover: Revisiting Microsoft One Week After Earnings Chief Financial Officer Matt Mainer said Post’s reduced pace of share repurchases is principally tied to the interest-rate environment rather than a change in its broader capital-allocation framework. While the company has no bond maturity for four years, it is evaluating the free-cash-flow implications of refinancing debt at currently higher rates. Mainer said Post’s benchmark 10-year refinancing rate rose 50 basis points during the most recent quarter. If rates remain elevated, he said the company expects to allocate a larger share of cash flow toward debt reduction and a smaller share toward repurchases, while retaining the ability to buy back stock opportunistically. Post views leverage in the mid-4x range as a comfortable level, Mainer said, but does not want leverage to rise because that could reduce flexibility for cash-funded acquisitions. He added that a lower refinancing-rate environment could alter the company’s view. Post said food service earnings remained strong in the third quarter, though it continues to view approximately $500 million as the segment’s normalized annualized EBITDA run rate. Mainer said the company has brought its own supply-demand balance and inventories back to desired levels following disruptions related to highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI. What remains, he said, is a disconnect between market egg prices and grain-based egg costs. Post believes industry oversupply should eventually correct because producers cannot sustain conditions where chicken feed costs exceed what can be earned in the open market. Catoggio said Post benefited more than anticipated from market conditions during the third quarter and exited the period with high inventories. Despite expectations for food service results to normalize, Mainer said the company believes the business can grow from its $500 million run rate in fiscal 2027. For the fourth quarter, Mainer said the company expects some improvement in refrigerated retail following a greater-than-expected pullback after an Easter-related benefit in the second quarter. He characterized the remainder of the portfolio as broadly flat sequentially. In pet food, Catoggio said Post is becoming more confident that the business is stabilizing and has reached about a 30% market share. The company is beginning to build a pipeline of cost-saving opportunities, including portfolio simplification, formula harmonization and eventual footprint optimization. Catoggio said about 60% of the pet business’s year-over-year decline came from value brands, primarily 9Lives. The company relaunched roughly one-third of the 9Lives brand that had not been profitable, though price elasticities were higher than expected. He said competitive promotions in cat food have pressured 9Lives, but Post does not plan to match competitors that have priced below the brand. For Nutrish, Catoggio said results are improving where the relaunch is fully implemented and the assortment has been concentrated on core beef, chicken and salmon products. At one large retailer, Nutrish moved from losing market share to gaining share over the latest 13-week period in dry dog food, he said. Post also sees opportunities in premium private-label pet products, a segment Catoggio said is growing. E-commerce is outperforming brick-and-mortar channels in pet, while mass retail is performing somewhat better than the category average and pet specialty is underperforming, he said. In cereal, Catoggio said Post expects volume performance to move closer to category trends in fiscal 2027. He attributed part of the company’s recent underperformance versus the category to deliberate assortment and promotional-efficiency changes, as well as lost distribution for lower-velocity Malt-O-Meal products. He said Post’s premium cereal portfolio is gaining market share and noted that category trends have been gradually improving toward what management views as a longer-term decline of roughly 1% to 2%. Post is also pursuing additional manufacturing-network actions. Catoggio said the company has decided to close two peanut butter plants as it integrates the 8th Avenue business and exits unprofitable business. He said the actions are expected to affect fiscal 2028 and would be similar in magnitude to prior cereal plant closures. Post Holdings, Inc is a consumer packaged goods company that operates as a holding company for a diverse portfolio of food and beverage brands. The company's principal activities include the production, marketing and distribution of ready-to-eat cereal, refrigerated and frozen foods, and nutritional beverages. Through its operating segments—Post Consumer Brands, Foodservice, Refrigerated Side Dishes & Bakery, and Active Nutrition—Post Holdings delivers a broad array of products to retail grocers, convenience stores, foodservice operators and e-commerce channels. The Post Consumer Brands segment features a variety of hot and cold cereals under names such as Honey Bunches of Oats, Shredded Wheat and Pebbles. 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 "Post Q3 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

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. Third quarter results slightly exceeded expectations, primarily driven by stronger-than-anticipated performance in the Foodservice segment. Management is maintaining the fiscal 2026 adjusted EBITDA midpoint while narrowing the guidance range as the business stabilizes. The company has aggressively reduced its share count, repurchasing approximately 17% of outstanding shares fiscal year-to-date. Foodservice performance benefited from taking advantage of market conditions and exiting the quarter with high inventory levels. The company is utilizing a proven 'cereal playbook' to optimize its footprint, including the decision to shut down two peanut butter plants as part of the AW business integration. Management is focusing on stabilizing pet food market share at approximately 3% to 3.2% before pursuing aggressive cost-saving initiatives. Marketing spend has been shifted almost entirely to digital channels to improve returns and effectiveness, moving away from linear TV. Preliminary fiscal 2027 outlook anticipates adjusted EBITDA to remain relatively flat compared to a rebased fiscal 2026 level of approximately $1.48 billion. The 2027 framework anticipates that growth in Foodservice, along with targeted pricing actions and cost savings, will help offset inflation, volume pressures, and the absence of divested businesses. Management expects to 'chase' inflation in fiscal 2027, with targeted pricing actions likely occurring in the latter half of the year after costs are realized. Capital allocation is pivoting toward debt reduction over share repurchases due to rising interest rates and the potential impact of future refinancing on free cash flow. Cereal volumes are expected to move closer to the long-term category trend of a 1% to 2% decline as assortment and promotional efficiencies improve. The fiscal 2026 outlook was adjusted for approximately $80 million of items affecting comparability to establish a clean base for fiscal 2027. Refrigerated Retail faced headwinds from the timing of Easter and the removal of pricing adders related to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). The pet food segment is experiencing category-wide pressure as the dog segment underperforms the cat segment, particularly in dry dog food. Higher fuel and freight costs have significantly impacted the Refrigerated Retail segment's current run rate. The decision is driven by rising interest rates and the need to protect free cash flow against future refinancing costs. Management intends to maintain leverage in the mid-4s to preserve flexibility for potential cash-accretive M&A. Share buybacks will continue but at a significantly slower pace than the last two years. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Management believes they haven't 'scratched the surface' on pet food costs compared to their historical work in cereal. Future initiatives will include portfolio simplification, formula harmonization, and potential footprint optimization once market share remains stable. The company is currently shutting down two peanut butter plants to streamline the integrated AW business. The $500 million estimate represents 'earning power' under normalized supply, demand, and inventory levels. Current outperformance is partially due to a temporary imbalance between market and grain-based egg pricing. Management expects to grow the business from this $500 million base starting in fiscal 2027. Core assortment (beef, chicken, salmon) is gaining market share at major retailers following a relaunch. The transition has been 'messy' and taken longer than anticipated, specifically regarding flanker SKUs. Management is focusing future resets on the core set of high-velocity SKUs that are performing in the top third of the category. Management views SNAP changes as a potential tailwind for cereal due to its high affordability relative to other breakfast options. Recent category improvements coincided with SNAP changes in the company's first quarter. WIC program changes regarding dairy allocation have introduced additional 'noise' into category performance data.

Post Holdings, Inc. POST reported third-quarter fiscal 2026 results, with both the top and bottom lines declining year over year. The top line missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate, while the bottom line beat the same. The company reported adjusted earnings of $1.78 per share, down 12.3% from $2.03 in the prior-year quarter. The metric beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.63 per share. Post Holdings, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Post Holdings, Inc. Quote Net sales declined 1.8% year over year to $1,948.0 million from $1,984.3 million and missed the consensus estimate of $2,019 million. Sales included a $141.8 million contribution from 8th Avenue. Gross profit decreased 5% year over year to $566.3 million from $596.2 million. Gross margin contracted to 29.1% from 30.0% in the year-ago quarter. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased 4.5% year over year to $326.1 million from $312.1 million. SG&A expenses, as a percentage of sales, rose to 16.7% from 15.7% in the prior-year period. Operating profit declined 19.3% year over year to $189.3 million from $234.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA declined 5% year over year to $377.3 million from $397.0 million, while adjusted EBITDA margin fell to 19.4% from 20.0%. Management said that quarterly adjusted EBITDA modestly exceeded expectations, primarily driven by stronger-than-anticipated Foodservice performance, partly offset by softer Refrigerated Retail results. The year-over-year decline in adjusted EBITDA was primarily due to the absence of elevated HPAI-related pricing in the cold-chain businesses. Post Consumer Brands generated net sales of $974.2 million, up 6.6% from $914.0 million in the prior-year quarter but below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $990 million. Current-quarter sales included $141.8 million from 8th Avenue. Excluding 8th Avenue, volumes decreased 7.1%, with pet food volumes down 7.8% and cereal and granola volumes falling 5.5%. Segment adjusted EBITDA increased 11.2% to $197.3 million from $177.5 million, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $195 million. Contributions from 8th Avenue and cost reductions more than offset lower volumes, while gross margin excluding 8th Avenue improved year over year. Foodservice net sales declined 6.5% year over year to $652.9 million from $698.5 million and missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $666 million. Volumes increased 4.3% year over year, supported by improved customer service levels and increased production of protein-based shakes. Segment adjusted EBITDA decreased 11.4% year over year to $140.8 million from $159.0 million but surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $128 million. The year-over-year decline reflected comparisons against elevated HPAI-related pricing in the prior-year quarter. Refrigerated Retail sales dropped 21.1% year over year to $184.5 million from $233.9 million and missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $226 million. The decline partly reflected the Crystal Farms divestiture. Excluding Crystal Farms, volumes fell 4.9%, affected by the shift of Easter demand into the second quarter this fiscal year and normalization in egg demand. Segment adjusted EBITDA fell 41.3% year over year to $26.6 million from $45.3 million and missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $35.5 million. The decline primarily reflected the lapping of HPAI-related pricing, the Easter timing shift and the sale of Crystal Farms. Weetabix net sales decreased 0.6% year over year to $137.1 million from $137.9 million in the year-ago quarter and were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Volumes declined 3.8% year over year, primarily due to lower private-label business, while foreign exchange provided a roughly 40-basis-point tailwind. Segment adjusted EBITDA rose 13.7% year over year to $37.3 million from $32.8 million, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $35.8 million. Favorable pricing and cost savings from plant rationalization supported the increase, partly offset by lower volumes. For the first nine months of fiscal 2026, cash provided by operating activities was $691.3 million compared with $697.0 million in the prior-year period. Capital expenditures declined to $289.8 million from $360.5 million, while free cash flow increased to $401.5 million from $336.5 million. During the third quarter, Post repurchased 2.1 million shares for $198.9 million at an average price of $98.86 per share. As of Aug. 5, 2026, $490.7 million remained under its share repurchase authorization. The company ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $265.6 million and long-term debt of $7,631.3 million. Management narrowed fiscal 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $1,560-$1,570 million from $1,550-$1,580 million, while retaining the midpoint of $1,565 million. The company expects fiscal 2026 capital expenditures to be between $370 and $390 million. For fiscal 2027, Post Holdings expects adjusted EBITDA to be generally flat versus a comparable fiscal 2026 base of approximately $1,480 million. Management expects Foodservice growth from its normalized $500 million annual run rate, pricing actions and productivity initiatives to largely offset inflationary pressures and continued volume softness in certain categories. This Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company’s shares have lost 17% over the past three months against the industry’s growth of 5.9%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Some better-ranked stocks have been discussed below: 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. DAR currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DAR’s current fiscal-year sales and earnings implies growth of 12.8% and 926.5%, respectively, from the year-ago actuals. DAR delivered a trailing four-quarter negative earnings surprise of 38.9%, on average. The Chef’s Warehouse, Inc. CHEF distributes specialty food and center-of-the-plate products in the United States, the Middle East, and Canada. CHEF currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CHEF’s current fiscal-year sales and earnings indicates growth of 10.8 and 24.7%, respectively, from the year-ago reported figures. CHEF delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 30.4%, on average. US Foods Holding Corporation USFD, together with its subsidiaries, markets, sells and distributes fresh, frozen, and dry food and non-food products to foodservice customers in the United States. USFD currently carries a Zacks Rank #2. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for US Foods’ current fiscal-year sales and earnings implies growth of 5.1% and 16.3%, respectively, from the year-ago actuals. USFD delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 1.4%, on average. 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 Post Holdings, Inc. (POST) : Free Stock Analysis Report Darling Ingredients Inc. (DAR) : Free Stock Analysis Report The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. (CHEF) : Free Stock Analysis Report US Foods Holding Corp. (USFD) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Packaged foods company Post (NYSE:POST) missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q2 CY2026, with sales falling 1.8% year on year to $1.95 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.78 per share was 4.3% above analysts’ consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy Post? Find out in our full research report. Revenue: $1.95 billion vs analyst estimates of $2.02 billion (1.8% year-on-year decline, 3.7% miss) Adjusted EPS: $1.78 vs analyst estimates of $1.71 (4.3% beat) Adjusted EBITDA: $377.3 million vs analyst estimates of $372.2 million (19.4% margin, 1.4% beat) EBITDA guidance for the full year is $1.57 billion at the midpoint, in line with analyst expectations Operating Margin: 9.7%, down from 11.8% in the same quarter last year Free Cash Flow Margin: 6.7%, up from 4.8% in the same quarter last year Market Capitalization: $4.04 billion Founded in 1895, Post (NYSE:POST) is a packaged food company known for its namesake breakfast cereal and healthier-for-you snacks. A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. With $8.41 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Post is one of the larger consumer staples companies and benefits from a well-known brand that influences purchasing decisions. As you can see below, Post’s sales grew at a decent 8.3% compounded annual growth rate over the last three years. This shows its offerings generated slightly more demand than the average consumer staples company, a useful starting point for our analysis. This quarter, Post missed Wall Street’s estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 1.8% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $1.95 billion of revenue. Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to decline by 2.8% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last three years. This projection doesn’t excite us and indicates its products will see some demand headwinds. ONE MORE THING: 3 Hidden Platforms Growing 3X Faster than Amazon, Google, and PayPal. Amazon, Google, and Meta all followed the same playbook: Dominate an ignored market. Build an unbeatable moat. Scale until you’re unstoppable. These three platforms are running that exact playbook right now. The early investors in Amazon made fortunes. The early investors in these could do the same. Get All 3 Stocks Here for FREE. If you’ve followed StockStory for a while, you know we emphasize free cash flow. Why, you ask? We believe that in the end, cash is king, and you can’t use accounting profits to pay the bills. Post has shown decent cash profitability, giving it some flexibility to reinvest or return capital to investors. The company’s free cash flow margin averaged 6% over the last two years, slightly better than the broader consumer staples sector. Taking a step back, we can see that Post’s margin expanded by 1.1 percentage points over the last year. This shows the company is heading in the right direction, and we can see it became a less capital-intensive business because its free cash flow profitability rose while its operating profitability was flat. Post’s free cash flow clocked in at $131.2 million in Q2, equivalent to a 6.7% margin. This result was good as its margin was 2 percentage points higher than in the same quarter last year, building on its favorable historical trend. It was encouraging to see Post beat analysts’ gross margin expectations this quarter. We were also happy its EBITDA narrowly outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its revenue missed. Overall, this was a softer quarter. The stock traded down 2.6% to $87.84 immediately following the results. Post may have had a tough quarter, but does that actually create an opportunity to invest right now? When making that decision, it’s important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free.

For the quarter ended June 2026, Post Holdings (POST) reported revenue of $1.95 billion, down 1.8% over the same period last year. EPS came in at $1.78, compared to $2.03 in the year-ago quarter. The reported revenue compares to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.02 billion, representing a surprise of -3.52%. The company delivered an EPS surprise of +9.2%, with the consensus EPS estimate being $1.63. While investors closely watch year-over-year changes in headline numbers -- revenue and earnings -- and how they compare to Wall Street expectations to determine their next course of action, some key metrics always provide a better insight into a company's underlying performance. As these metrics influence top- and bottom-line performance, comparing them to the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated helps investors project a stock's price performance more accurately. Here is how Post Holdings performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts: Net Sales- Weetabix: $137.1 million versus the two-analyst average estimate of $137.35 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of -0.6%. Net Sales- Post Consumer Brands: $974.2 million versus $989.94 million estimated by two analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +6.6% change. Net Sales- Foodservice: $652.9 million compared to the $666.3 million average estimate based on two analysts. The reported number represents a change of -6.5% year over year. Net Sales- Refrigerated Retail: $184.5 million versus $225.53 million estimated by two analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a -21.1% change. Adjusted EBITDA- Post Consumer Brands: $197.3 million compared to the $194.56 million average estimate based on two analysts. Adjusted EBITDA- Weetabix: $37.3 million versus $35.77 million estimated by two analysts on average. Adjusted EBITDA- Foodservice: $140.8 million versus $127.81 million estimated by two analysts on average. Adjusted EBITDA- Corporate/ Other: $-24.7 million compared to the $-20 million average estimate based on two analysts. Adjusted EBITDA- Refrigerated Retail: $26.6 million versus $35.52 million estimated by two analysts on average. View all Key Company Metrics for Post Holdings here>>> Shares of Post Holdings have returned +3.9% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +3.3% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), indicating that it could underperform the broader market in the near term. 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 Post Holdings, Inc. (POST) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Post Holdings (POST) came out with quarterly earnings of $1.78 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.63 per share. This compares to earnings of $2.03 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +9.20%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this cereal maker would post earnings of $1.64 per share when it actually produced earnings of $1.94, delivering a surprise of +18.29%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times. Post Holdings, which belongs to the Zacks Food - Miscellaneous industry, posted revenues of $1.95 billion for the quarter ended June 2026, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.52%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $1.98 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates two times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Post Holdings shares have lost about 9.9% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 12.8%. While Post Holdings has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Post Holdings was unfavorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to underperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $1.84 on $2.02 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $7.57 on $8.26 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Food - Miscellaneous is currently in the bottom 16% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Flowers Foods (FLO), another stock in the same industry, has yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 20. This bakery goods company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.23 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -23.3%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. Flowers Foods' revenues are expected to be $1.23 billion, down 1% from the year-ago quarter. 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 Post Holdings, Inc. (POST) : Free Stock Analysis Report Flowers Foods, Inc. (FLO) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research