The Campbell Soup reported that its first-quarter profit fell 3.7 per cent, but its sales rose as people bought more condensed soup - a product that tends to do well when the economy sputters.
But the company said it expects to be hurt in the fiscal year by unfavourable exchange rates, and its shares fell nearly seven per cent.
The Camden, New Jersey-based company said Monday it earned $US260 million ($A409.8 million), or 71 cents per share in the quarter ended November 2. That compares to $US270 million ($A425.57 million), or 70 cents per share, a year earlier. The number of outstanding shares was lower because the company has bought back three million shares since June.
Excluding one-time items, such as restructuring costs and losses on commodity hedges, the company would have earned $US281 million ($A442.9 million), or 77 cents per share. That's one penny higher than the consensus expectation of 12 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
The Camden-based soup maker says its sales rose three per cent to $US2.25 billion ($A3.55 billion) for the quarter, from $US2.19 billion ($A3.45 billion).
Campbell says condensed soup sales rose 14 per cent in the quarter. The company also said ready-to-serve soup sales increased seven per cent because of the launch of a line of healthy soups, which partially offset continuing declines for its Chunky soup brand.
Among non-soup items, the company said its Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers - a hit among preschoolers - had sales gains, but Pepperidge Farm cookie sales slipped.
"We are pleased with out performance in today's challenging and uncertain economic environment," CEO and President Douglas R Conant said.
The company says it expects to be hurt in the fiscal year by unfavourable exchange rates.
Campbell says it still expects to sales to increase by three per cent to four per cent. But if current exchange rates hold, its earnings per share growth will fall short of earlier expectations, coming in at less than two per cent instead of in the five per cent to seven per cent range.